Let Me See That Horizon
by burntpaperplanes
Summary: Sisters Marion and Tereza grew up together in London with a family they both knew they weren't related to by blood. Up until the age of nine that was - when a brutal accident strikes the twins and they are separated. One year later, after a near drowning, Marion wakes up on an island she doesn't recognize, in a world she doesn't recognize. [Many pairings] [Possible M rating later].
1. Prologue

**A/N: So...a new story...and I have yet to update my other ones...I apologize enormously for that. However I promise, and I bet upon my whole writing career (or something) that I will update the other stories as well soon. I have them all on my computer just waiting to be finished and I don't plan on abandoning them anytime soon. My summer holidays just got a bit more busy than I'd thought they would.**

 **Anyways, as I have a thing for darkening my stories (I'm better at horror than humor in other words) this one will as well take on a darker, more gritty, theme than the actual canon. I might update the rating from T to M and other stuff. Now without further ado, please read on!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the original work; One Piece nor any of it's characters. I do however own my ocs and some of the future plot.**

 **Prologue**

* * *

Ellen Williams may not have worked for a specifically long time as a Journalist, but she had seen her fair share of destruction and mayhem during her years in the office. It was quite usual with a job like hers. Was there a report on an accident, or a crime, which had been committed somewhere in the city she was to be there on a moment's notice. Hopefully before the cops were. But however many burning buildings, wrecked cars and dead bodies she saw; none devastated her as formidably as the one truck (with a semitrailer) crash on Westeros st. that day in September.

Westeros street was on most days a vivid and welcoming neighborhood. With finely built and painted villas, lush gardens and the park - with the ever popular playground - filled with children's laughter. The traffic along the road was mostly not very heavy either - who would travel so far from the center of London only to see a mass of suburban houses? - and the inhabitants could usually enjoy a quiet afternoon with their families. Not the inner city hustle nor the sound of engines roaring were to disturb anyone who lived there within the afternoon.

Ellen, whose house was the number 16 of that very street - the large brick house with the white fence enclosing it's courtyard -, should know.

The smoke had been the first thing she had noticed as she drove her black SUV from the hospital - which was just a few kilometers from the collision site. Grey, near black, pillars of toxic. Foreboding, and deadly. Her mind had immediately jumped to the worst case scenario.

Was it her house the smoke was coming from? Had something happened to her family?

As she drove up Willowbed street, speeding she was sure, the picture of what had happened was being painted in her head. There were tire markings all along the end of the road - where Willowbed st became Westeros st - black as coal against the greyed asphalt. The imprints were twisting and turning as though the driver had thought he'd been steering a rollercoaster instead of a car; or whatever vehicle it was. And one of the trash bins had been overrun along with several mailboxes.

When she came across that turning point just where the left side of the road twisted into the parking lot of the park it was obvious what kind of incident had taken place. The large truck with it's advertising grocery pictures stamped upon the semi-trailer was unmistakeable upon the wreckage of the big climbing frame, and the still burning flames all around and on the crash site looked like death.

The street hadn't been completely shut off by the police, ambulance and firemen who had arrived and Ellen could carefully drive into her garage on the sixteenth without inquiries, however as soon as the engine was off and she had with the push of a button locked all the car's doors she was running towards the area of impact - and consequently into the arms of an officer.

"Ellen!", the policeman beseeched with a voice she recognized instantly as belonging to her husband - Brandt Williams -, "Please you don't want to get closer…"

"You cannot be serious!", Ellen hollered, "There might be people we know who are in there! Let go of me this instant!".

She struggled against him and surprisingly, even as Brandt had the superior body build, she managed to break free. With no hesitation at all she ran the rest of the way to the park and to were the police had shut off the area from the public with their yellow tape. She raised the tape and continued into the area where the emergency service workers were all stationed. Save most of the firemen who were by the wreckage. Putting out flames and saving any people caught in the crash. A large firefighter, clad of course in the usual corn colored uniform, was carrying a blonde unconscious girl from the site. Ellen felt immensely guilty that she felt relieved when it was obviously not one of her children.

"Ellen, get out of here, the area is out-of-bounds!", another officer whom's voice she recognized from her husband's gaming nights, called.

Jeremy Warrens, who was large man, not half as attractive as her husband, with double-chins and a hot-temper (she remembered from a certain incident involving a bet and a lost game of poker) strode towards her from an ambulance where he had seemingly been talking with one of the victims, a teenager, perhaps a babysitter, who had sat with one of the paramedics and was having her blistered arm taken care of. Out of the corner of her eye Ellen could see her husband walking towards her as well. All worried glances and squinting eyes - though the squinting could have been due to the smoke filling the area.

"Jeremy, it's alright, I'll take care of her", Brandt said as he tucked her hand within his own, giving it a reassuring squeeze, "I promise she won't be any trouble".

Jeremy let out an irritating grunt - which made him sound a lot like a pig - but nodded still.

"Yes, yes. As long as she doesn't go around asking any questions just yet".

Ellen felt something tighten in her chest.

"How dare y-"

"Good, alright!", her husband cut of and began to lead her toward an empty ambulance at the furthest edge of the park.

"Brandt! He was going to - Again! In a situation like this!", Ellen frustratedly shrieked, but not loud enough for anyone but her husband to hear.

"I know, I know. He's got some bad dealings with the media in the past, forgive him for the moment", Brandt said, however still with that nervous tick of his - the averting of eyes - as he talked. Her husband never did that unless something was severely wrong - or he was lying.

"Brandt, what are you hiding from me?", Ellen demanded and halted their journey, harshly gripping onto Brandt's arm in the process, "if it's got something to do with this crash - for god's sake tell me!".

Brandt glanced towards the diminishing flames of the wreckage. Their twins used to play there whenever they could - after school or during the weekends when there was nothing else to do - and -

 _The twins!_

"Brandt, where are the twins?!", Ellen gasped.

Her husband guiltily looked into her eyes.

"They're missing Ellen…", he said.

Amidst the hollering and cries of those injured and helping Ellen thought she'd heard wrong. The smoke was clogging her ears - if that was possible. Or it was making her brain work strangely in some way. The ash and toxin was getting her high - possibly.

"What…".

"They...we called your sister to babysit them today right?", Brandt asked as though he was wishing for something. Praying.

No. He had specifically called the Anderson's son, Samuel, to babysit the twins today because - as they both knew - her sister was working on Fridays. She was always working on Fridays. And they always - nearly always - called Samuel to babysit them. They had done so for years.

"No...it was Samuel...as usual…", Ellen answered.

"...As usual….", Brandt whimpered.

"The twins…..", Ellen pleaded, "they are not….they're not…".

She could not finish the sentence before moist began to gather behind her now closed eyelids. A whimper, followed by a cough, escaped her throat. Her husband wrapped his arms around her and she clung to him like a lifeline.

"We don't know…", Brandt whispered with uneven breaths, "they're...they're just missing at the moment. Samuel also…".

"So..they could really be...how many deaths are there…?", Ellen snivelled.

"...two, as of yet…", Brandt said, "but both the climbing frame, and that _fucking_ truck were so large...there could be more people under the rubble….".

"Oh God", Ellen squeaked.

The Journalist sagged against her husband's shoulders and let his weight support her. Her body felt too heavy to hold up. Hadn't she, and her husband too, seen enough of these kinds of events during their work hours? And how come they hadn't kept a tighter leash on their children?

"We're terrible adoptive parents aren't we?", she moaned against the shoulder her head was resting on. Her left fist clenched around the front of her husband's uniform.

The both of them were shivering. But not from the cold. It couldn't be because the heat from the fire was still strong in the air and it warmed everybody in a close enough proximity until the point of uncomfortableness. That and the lingering warmth of the gone-by summer. No doubt the firefighters were sweating like pigs by this point - the heat was even smothering her.

Brandt was combing his left hand fingers through Ellen's hair and kissing her from temple to the top of her head and back again. The two stood there, holding onto each other for what felt like an hour - yet was more likely just another five minutes - before, with a yell that startled every inattentive person near, one of the firemen announced that they had found yet another survivor. The fireman was carrying the squirming body of a child, a girl around the age of eight or nine, clad in a yellow striped dress (which was ruined). He carried the small girl to one of the ambulance stretchers and carefully placed her on it. A paramedic, a woman around Ellen's age, ran to the stretcher with medical equipment - but Ellen noticed no more before she, with panicked breaths, sprinted towards the stretcher as well.

"Marion!", she called desperately as she reached the stretcher.

The small girl, who was breathing heavily, crying, and had a large gash upon her left arm (from the elbow to the shoulder), had deep red hair. The color almost identical to the blood running down her arm and shoulder. There were only two children whose hair had that color in the neighbourhood. And that yellow dress was one Ellen herself had helped choose only that morning.

"Oh, Marion, oh god, oh god, oh god, Marion, Marion, Marion, baby…", Ellen wailed. She was keeping her distance despite wanting to cradle her daughter in her arms, letting the paramedic work on Marion's injuries.

Brandt walked up, with hurried steps, behind his wife and exhaled harshly.

"Oh god", he groaned.

When their daughter's injuries were tended to to the best of the paramedic's abilities - the woman had while she worked informed the couple of how bad Marion's injuries were and asked them some questions to calm them - the stretcher was heaved into one of the ambulances and an EMT climbed into the driving seat. The paramedic who had tended to Marion climbed in at the back alongside the stretcher.

"Mrs Williams you might want to come with us to the hospital. Your husband should stay here for the time being however - you had another daughter right? - but Marion will most likely want you by her side once she comes to her senses", the paramedic said as she motioned for the EMT to start the engines.

"But….Tereza...oh god she could still be beneath the rubble..", Ellen whimpered - however she did not protest when her husband, with shaking limbs, pushed her up the ramp and onto one of the seats which stuck out from the right wall beside the stretcher.

"I promise I'll call you the moment they find her, just go, Marion... you know she would hate to be alone in a hospital", Brandt said.

Her husband kissed her on the temple and climbed out of the ambulance. Before he closed the back doors Brandt let a unsure, but consoling, smile grace his lips. Ellen did not return the gesture but simply nodded. The ambulance was then off with a roar.

For the second time that day Ellen found herself heading to the hospital - earlier that day a rather famous singer had drunk too much and got himself admitted - but this time she was neither the one driving nor was she calm in any sense. Her heart felt as though it wanted to break out of her chest.

"Mrs Williams, your daughter will be fine", the paramedic said after about five minutes of driving.

"...I...", Ellen said, "...what is your name? I never got it while you were helping my daughter…".

The paramedic smiled.

"It's Emelie, Emelie Campell".

Ellen clasped her hands together and looked down to the floor. She was sure she looked as though she was begging.

"Emelie...thank you...thank you for helping my daughter".

"It's no matter Mrs Williams, it's my job", Emelie sid and checked a few of the medical devices around her and re-checked the whimpering girl between them, "besides I would dare to imply that your daughter should take just as much credit, if not more, than me at the job. She's a strong one".

"That she is…", Ellen chuckled.

The ambulance arrived at the hospital at exactly 05.15 pm and the few hours after that were mostly a stressful blur. Her daughter had been forced to undergo surgery due to the heavy damage her left arm had taken and several injuries to her stomach, and for too long Ellen had been forced to sit and wait. Despite what the paramedic, Emelie Campell, had said, that her daughter would be fine and the injuries weren't too severe, she had a sick feeling within her stomach that something would go wrong. What if something happened and these were the last breaths her nine year old would breathe? It would be horrible. Ellen did not know if she could live with it if something were to happen. And what about Tereza? Brandt hadn't called, which meant that they hadn't found her yet. Was Tereza to die due to a _fucking truck driver_?! The livelier of the twins wasn't supposed to die like that. Ellen had decided already as her and her husband had adopted them when they'd been four - four and with only vague memories of their blood related parents. She had decided that Tereza would live a long and exciting life, perhaps become an artist of some sort, or an athlete, and find love at some point. Her life was to last until she was old and frail and Ellen herself was already long gone.

And what about Marion? Maybe she would become a firefighter, or a police like her father. As long as nothing went awry with the surgery.

When then the surgery was finished and two nurses rolled out the bed on which Marion lay Ellen felt immensely relieved.

Marion was assigned a room on the second floor with a large window and a tv in front of the bed. The room was large, and at least another sickbed could fit inside, but the nurses had informed Ellen that her daughter would not have to share just yet. The walls were painted white - like all the other hospital walls - and the floor was grey. In Ellen's eyes the room looked mockingly dead as she sat on a chair beside her shallowly breathing daughter. The girl had awakened slowly during the ride up the elevator.

"E-Ellen…", Marion whimpered.

The twins never called her nor her husband by mother or father. But that had never either been of any importance to the two adults.

"...i-it hurts…".

Ellen smiled sadly at her daughter and replied;

"Yeah, I know baby...but it'll be over soon".

A few moments of silence followed.

"E-Ellen…", Marion said later.

"What is it?", Ellen asked.

"I…I...", she stammered.

The girl was quiet for a few moments as though she was contemplating what to say before she slowly opened her mouth once more.

"I saw her vanish….it..it wasn't a dream, I know it….Reza was there in front of me...she was yelling...because the truck was coming….but I wanted to hold her hand…..and then she was gone. She vanished…".

* * *

 **A/N: So, how was it? Good? Bad? Sad? Please review!**

 **P.S This is the rewritten version of the prologue - the first upload was accidentally only a draft.**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Finally an update! I had a bit of trouble with this one to be honest, but managed to work out all the kinks in the end. And I appologize for how long it took. Thank you for the follows and likes, and to WolfChild23 for your review even though it was just a short prologue.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not under any circumstances own One Piece, either the manga or the anime. I do however own my characters and part of the non-canon plot.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **Every new beginning**

 _Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end - Seneca_

* * *

Marion Williams was daydreaming. Amidst the hustle and noises which naturally came to the large port of London, the small ten year old, with too brightly red hair - braided clumsily at her back -, too many freckles, and a too heavy backpack still strapped to her back, sat at the edge of one of the filthy docks with an untouched sandwich in hand and a smile across her lips. Ignorant of the world around her.

Around the girl there was a fuss. Merchants yelling, fishermen yelling and swearing, tourists swearing and turning to walk the other way and boats, or ships, groaning and creaking as they rode the waves of the Thames river. It was nothing unusual. It was the proof of that the harbor had it's own rhythm, it's own loudly beating heart, and it's own set of rules. Sure you needed a permission to dock there. But in it's own way the port of London was free in a way the inner city couldn't even dream to compare to. Even the inner city noises were but a distant echo there.

Someone behind Marion yelled something about a shipment to someone else, and the ten year old began to hum. Still dismissing the sandwich in her hand.

It was quite often that Marion found herself sitting at that very place during school hours. As it was her wristwatch read 01.27 pm, on a Tuesday, and she should really be inside her classroom - getting teased by that damn Cornaby boy - but like most days she couldn't be bothered. Her parents blamed it on a PTSD sickness - whatever that was - and her doctors agreed. Marion herself knew though that it was just because she missed her sister, and because of that damn Cornaby's teasing. She liked the harbor better than that stuffed classroom. And she liked the yelling fishermen more than the droning of Mr Evett during math.

Marion finally took a bite out of her sandwich as a seagull shrieked somewhere beside her. But she immediately regretted it and spit the halfly shewed bred into the water in front of her. It had been peanutbutter. She despised peanut butter. The little girl proceeded to throw the remainder of the nearly untouched sandwich into the water and a moment later a seagull swooped down and stole the thing.

Marion let a laugh escape her throat at the sight.

"Hey kid!", a rough voice behind her huffed, "You here again? Shouldn't you be at school?".

Marion turned her head around and was met by the sight of a large man, at least twice her height, if a bit more, with whitening hair and tanned skin. He was carrying a box full of dead sea-creatures and tucked under his left arm was a clipboard. She recognized the man as the same one who had asked her the very same question last week. What had he said his name was again? Wildred? William?

"Nah", Marion simply replied and turned her eyes back to the water.

She heard a ' _thump_ ' somewhere to the left and soon after the man seated himself on top of a large wooden crate placed right beside her. The old man gave out a grunt and placed his clipboard on his lap. The large box he had been carrying Marion suspected he had placed on the ground when she'd heard the 'thump'.

"You sure?", the man asked, "Because you look like you're around ten or something and last I checked ten year olds should be at school, and not at some filthy harbour….feedin the seagulls with peanut butter sandwiches".

Marion giggled. Maybe she _should_ start carrying those kinds of sandwiches with her whenever she decided to come here. That seagull had been very eager to steal the disgusting thing after all.

"And last I checked it wasn't customary for an old man to sit talking to a ten year old either, old man".

"Big words for a small girl", the man said and stretched his left arm, "and don't call me that, I still have a few active years left, I told ya my name last week, it's Weldon".

So, Weldon it was.

"Yeah, yeah", Marion grunted.

"So what'cha doing here? Again", Weldon asked once more.

Marion groaned.

"School is stupid", she grumbled, "and Cornaby won't stop teasing me".

"So troubles at school then?", Weldon asked.

"Something like that….", Marion hesitated, "...and I miss Reza…".

The man grunted gazed over to the small redhead.

"Your…?", Weldon grunted in return.

"My sister...was my sister...is...I don't know…", Marion replied. Feeling defeated.

"She dead?", Weldon nonchalantly questioned.

Marion turned her head to the man and glared. Weldon in turn looked at her with a quirked eyebrow and thinned lips.

"No", Marion harshly huffed and turned back to staring at the ocean. A large cargo ship could be seen near the horizon. The sky didn't have a cloud blocking it from sight this day. Why was the old man bothering her? Didn't he have to work?

"Then she's on a vacation? Or are your parents divorced?", he asked.

"Ugh, what's it to you?", Marion questioned and tugged her knees to her chest.

"Nah, it's just that I have a daughter around your age at a different harbour. She acts like you sometimes when I'm gone I'm told…", Weldon said and let his own gaze wander to the ocean.

"Oh…", Marion whispered.

A silence then lingered between the two. Still with the loud port noises all around them - and once they even heard a loud 'crash' from somewhere behind them and as they turned to see what it was it turns out a large container full of something (most likely fragile) had been dropped by one of the large cranes - and the seagulls still circling everywhere above the area. The duo sat there in complete silence for at least a few minutes before Marion, impatiently, had to break it.

"She vanished…", she slowly said, "...she vanished out of nowhere and no one knows how or where….they said she just died but she really didn't…".

The older man was quiet still for a few moments. Gazing into the ocean as though he wanted to jump into it - or at least that was how it looked like to Marion. Before he with a calculating expression said:

"You sure kid? Sometimes when we hear or see things we don't want to see or hear we deny the truth...no matter how ridikculous the denial is…".

Marion gazed at the man. A little bewildered at his words. But shook her head later nonetheless.

"Maybe…", Marion lied and a lump formed in her throat. She averted her gaze to the side of the pier and exhaled shakily.

Weldon checked his wristwatch and his eyebrows quirked.

"Damn, sorry, but it seems I have overstayed my break...have to get the shipment into town before half past two", he said and stood - again putting the clipboard under his arm.

Marion nodded. Her eyes once more on the horizon.

"Yeah...and I guess I'll see you next week again, huh?", she said.

"Most likely", Weldon said.

The older man walked out of Marion's sight. There was a hustle behind her - she guessed he was grabbing the box he had been carrying - and then footsteps which grew ever quieter as he was walking away from the pier. Soon the sound was completely swallowed by the rest of the harbor.

Marion guessed she had enjoyed the talk. It was uncommon for people to even notice her as she sat on that very same spot nearly every workday. Either the people in the harbor didn't talk to her or they were yelling at her to get away. The man was strange though. He said he had a daughter which she guessed was the reason that he at all noticed her, but who just went and talked to a stranger like that? She decided he was a funny person.

Marion shrugged her shoulders and grabbed after her backpack. She swung the heavy thing into her lap and began to rummage through everything she had packed that morning. The book about dragons - packed instead of the math book -, her extra sweater, three more books, four large chocolate bars, two pens, a notebook, two key-chains, a pack of cards and a photo-book - she was surprised she had even managed to close the zipper after she'd packed. The photo-book was what she grabbed out of her bag once she had found it buried beneath the sweater.

While still having the backpack laid on her lap Marion opened the photo-book and was greeted by the smiling face of someone who was almost identical to her. On the first page of this self-made picture book - Marion had gotten the book as a birthday present and added the pictures herself - was a photo of her elder sister (by twelve minutes if she were to believe her sister's insistence). Tereza Williams, or Reza as she was also called, had the very same brightly red hair, the very same amount of freckles on her face (they had counted once) and the very same pointed nose and round chin as Marion. The only real distinctive features which told the twins apart was as Marion had blue eyes Reza had golden; and Reza's hair was distinctively more frizzy.

Then there was also the large scar across Marion's left arm. That was something Reza didn't have.

Marion turned the page.

On the next page was a picture of the two twins at the park. Clad in identical blue dresses and each of the both carrying matching silver necklaces around their necks. The twins were smiling at the camera in this picture too, and the necklace picture-Marion donned was the same one Marion at the docks wore. Marion at the docks smiled.

Then Marion at the docks sneezed.

And the book slipped from her fingers.

' _Splash_ ', and it was gone into the water, ' _splash_ ' and her fingers reached for the icy river. Down to the bottom of the sea it was sinking. Never to be seen again. Perhaps to be eaten by a large fish eventually. Or...it should have been. However in a state of shock the small ten year old had automatically slid off the pier and into the cold, murky, water.

She hadn't thought about it for a second. Acting on impulse. She hadn't _thought_ at all, and once the icy liquid swallowed her body she regretted the deed. Panic arose from her stomach.

Marion Williams, lover of the horizon and adorer of the _idea_ of the ocean, _could not swim_.

Her body submerged. Surrounded by dark icy liquid which lapped at every muscle of her body and rendered them useless she sank. Like a stone she descended lower and lower until the few sun rays, which often lighted up the surface of the river, were impossible to see and there was nothing but darkness in front of her eyes. Her backpack's straps were tugging harshly around her left arm where they had become entangled and her dress clung to her body like a wet rag.

Once or twice before Marion had been in a similar situation - but each of those times either Ellen or Reza had been with her and she had not been forced to endure the water for long. This was completely different. The Thames river in it's whole was as wild as an untamed animal, not like the pools she had been compelled to endure before, and it's waves played with her small form like it was a ball. Throwing her around, from side to side, twisting and turning her, until it hurt to not breathe simply because of the strain on her body. She had to breathe. _She needed to breathe_. It became a pleading mantra in her thoughts.

Marion shut her eyes tight and she wished for her photo-book. She wished for her sister for what felt like the thousandth time in a year, and she wished for someone to drag her out of the water and onto the warmth of the harbor. The waves lapped against her body once again and her ears roared.

The small girl inhaled and soon the world vanished around her.

* * *

#

* * *

Marion lay on her side. Squishing her left arm against the sand and grime beneath her weight and feeling sick to her stomach. She was breathing as though she had been running a marathon. Or had just drowned. Her heart pulsing like that of a mouse.

The ten year old had woken like that. Body aching, but alive. She had woken with sand pressed against her face and a blue sky dazzling her eyes, a blazing sun shining down on her back, and the sound of seagulls crying far above her. Her mouth tasted like salt.

Marion shut her eyes tightly and grit her teeth before slowly, ever so slowly sitting up. Her whole body protested the motion by turning her organs upside-down. She had to quickly crawl onto all fours as to not vomit on her legs.

After her body's display of obvious aftershock from a well-nigh drowning she, specifically her stomach, ached even more. Her stomach was stabbing itself. A thousand knives at once, again and again. But puking again she felt was impossible. Her head was pounding and her arms had gone numb.

The beach she was sitting on reached far both left and right, and where the sand ended, because on both sides it eventually did, cliffs of the same color, beige, took form. Along the edges of the shore waves the color of a summer's sky lapped. There was a thick woodland behind her. With green bushes and trees as tall as some of the buildings in London. The greenery was bleeding into the sand everywhere she looked, sand mixed with weeds and shrubbery, and the blue sky above her, mostly void of clouds, was just a shade lighter than the sea.

Stumbling upon wobbly legs, and tears gathering by her eyes, she stood. The sun in all it's blinding glory was soon nearing the horizon and Marion realized that she should not be sitting on an unnamed beach once the sun did set. Ellen had told her once that it often became rather cold on beaches during the night, and Marion still only had a wet a-line dress on, along with a pair of damp sandals. However the decision of which way she would try to walk, left or right - because into the forest was not among the viable choices -, was a hard one. Left was where the woods became thicker, but there was a trampled path, and right was where the sand sooner became grass. In the end grass won over forest and Marion found herself trudging along the sand dunes to the right.

She walked for a long while, her wristwatch had stopped and she couldn't tell the hour from the minutes, and not once did she halt. Not as her feet blistered and not as she began to cry, tears blurring her sight until she was near blind. She walked along the sand, then the grass and then upon a small pathway she found by the cliffs. The horizon had been painted red and pink by the time she finally paused her trudge in the face of the first real sign of civilization.

She hadn't noticed it, the cottage, until she was right at the pathway which lead to its door. How could she have? The shadows were growing larger and the house was built into the cliffs, possibly hidden by will. It was a small wooden building, with a round stable door at the front, several square windows with white casings and a smoking chimney at the top of the roof. Had it not been for the puffing chimney she would have walked it by. And Marion, as strange as it was, upon its sight had a moment of deja vú.

 _Had she seen the building sometime before?_ She questioned as she walked up the cottage's porch and knocked on the door.

No one answered.

She knocked again, this time just a bit harder, and then, after a few moments of silence, she heard a man's gruff voice curse from beyond the door.

" _Fuckin' shit!_ ".

There was a 'thud' of something hitting the floor. A hustle. And - was that glass breaking? Then the upper part of the stable door slammed open and Marion had to bend her knees as to not be hit in the head by the thing.

The small girl grumbled, a mix of irritation and exhaustion, and glared up at the owner of the house.

He was a large man in his fifties, built, it seemed, only by muscle. With biceps the size of her thighs, resting over the lower part of the stable door, a strong jaw and a crooked nose. His hair, dark brown but greying, was braided into several dreadlocks decorated with charms and beads. The dirty wife-beater he was wearing had lost its white color and was now merely bisque.

"Oh, fuckin'", the man groaned between chapped lips, "what be ye doin' ere, kid?".

Marion frowned at the harsh language, and straightened her posture.

"I- I", she spoke hoarsely. "I don't really know where I am...I woke up on a beach not far from here and…".

"So what, were ye in a shipwreck or sumthin'?", he asked.

"N-no I was just drowning in the Thames and -".

"Tha' a ship?".

"N-No!", Marion yelped.

"So an Island?", the man huffed, scratching his chin.

"No! The Thames river in London! I was drowning in the Thames river of London!", Marion squeaked with her most high-pitched voice. This man did not know of the Thames river? The longest river in England, second in the U.K? Even she, and she was but ten years old, knew exactly what it was, and where it was. Was the man pulling her leg?

"Ne'er heard 'o it, kid", the man scoffed, "are ye pullin' me leg 'ere 'o sumthin'?".

Marion's eyes widened in disbelief. Was he serious? He was wasn't he? How could she, as she'd been unconscious under the water, have drifted further than a few kilometers, at most, from the pier? The answer was obvious; she couldn't have. It was impossible. And the man in front of her must be delirious.

"...Then…", she slowly said and looked to the ground, "can you possibly direct me to the nearest town?".

The man muttered something under his breath before he pointed down the path she had been walking along. Marion clenched her fist.

"Below thar, thar's a village called Monmouth jus' below th' road", he said, "ye can be off to an inn called th' sea kin''s mouth, 'n ask whatever it be ye want t' ask".

Monmouth? She had never heard of a city, or town, called such. Not that she had ever been outside of London for that matter - Ellen and Brandt never had the time for road trips. But she had seen maps of the U.K several times before and no town anywhere near London was called that. Marion frowned once again.

"Thank you…", she doubtfully replied.

Marion stepped away from the threshold and walked carefully, her blistered feet still hurt, onto the grass. She looked at the sky, her only way of telling the time. The sun had almost vanished behind the horizon now. Her feet managed to carry her a few meters from the house when, surprisingly, the man called to her again.

"Oh! 'n I would hurry if I were ye, thar's a beast in th' forest tha' likes th' dark, probably small lasses like ye too! 'N lookout fer th' band 'o pirates in town too, they be real bastards!".

For a moment Marion halted. Reluctant and confused. But soon she continued to clump forward in the grass, always keeping track of the small pathway. She walked alongside the trampled road until the sun really was dead to the sky and the moon had taken it's place. A crescent moon. Her blistered feet surely bleeding at one point. However all the while she walked the strange things the man said wouldn't leave her mind.

There were no pirates in the U.K anymore, unfortunately yet fortunate at the same time, and the few in the world who remained were far from what they once had been. And a beast? Had he meant some kind of wild boar? That was the largest animal she could think of which didn't live in the jungle. Beside that, what kind of name was Monmouth any way?

Her head was, again, pounding once she saw the first building. It was a large wooden villa, very different from the cottage by the cliffs, with large windows and two chimneys. The house looked like the ones she had once seen in a history book - yet with a strange touch of modernism -, like a victorian house. The large house had been built just by the side of the road she was walking along, on top of a hill, and once she turned around the corner of it she was met by the sight of the entire village.

Marion was used to London. Or she told herself that at least. She was used to the busy streets, the roaring of engines, the old buildings mixed with the new and she thought that was what a city which was alive looked like. Busy during the day and busy during the night. Loud and quite fearsome. But this small, exceptionally small compared to the vast capital of the united kingdom, village stole her breath. There was simply not other way to describe the village but that it was _alive_.

The small village, which was roughly the size of her home street, was built just of wood, with narrow roads, and windows the colors of the rainbow - even the harbour buildings had colored windows. None of the houses walls were painted, like the ones in london, but strangely enough it didn't deter from it's beauty. The natural brown color of the wooden planks blended perfectly with the colorful windows. Along the rooftops and above the streets hang lanterns of different sizes. It looked like a fishermen's village taken straight out of a fantasy book, old but new, poor but rich, and instantly Marion loved it.

 _It was so different._

There were people, roughish looking ones, wandering about the streets clad in both common and strange clothing (like cowboy hats and tuxedos). None noticed her as she trudged down the slope from the villa. They looked truly worn out by life, with scars, sunken expressions, and some even with lost limbs. And they all brandished some sort of weapon.

Marion, slouching, kept to the edges of the streets as she walked through the village. She was following the delirious man's advice despite herself and searched for the inn called "the sea king's mouth", but unsurprisingly didn't seem to be able to find it. Marion found an antiquities store, a grocery, a weapon's store (she hurried from it as the roughish humans at it began to stare at her), a clothing store (with strange fashion brands she couldn't recognize), and even a bakery. However even as she stumbled through the streets with no identifiable names a second time, and now her feet were really bleeding, there was no inn, nor hotel, called "the sea king's mouth". She was just about convinced she had been lured, when she heard a duo, a small man and a beautiful young woman, mention the inn's location by passing. The inn was driven by the former mayor's daughter it seemed. The daughter whom lived on top of the hill.

Marion's gaze was at an instant locked upon the villa with the large windows. An elderly man was opening the front door. The dim lantern at its porch was swinging by the will of the wind, a slight howling carried by it, and of what little she could see of the old western-styled sign there sure were the words "Sea" and "Mouth". Marion felt slightly discouraged that she had not sighted it earlier.

Her feet were surprisingly quick in pace during the walk back up the hill, despite blisters and tired limbs, and she reached the large door at it's porch within moments.

The door was a heavy one to open. It protested with groans and creaks as she gripped the handle and pulled. Reminding her of the old one at her house. But once the door did swing open, a harsh tug on her part and a push from the other side, a smell like nothing else assaulted her nose. It was salty, sweaty and strangely sweet at the same time. Like perfume badly applied along with the smell of something newly baked.

The smell distracted the young girl enough not to notice the larger body in front of her. The one she promptly walked straight into.

Marion let out a pained ' _uff'_ as she collided with the woman standing in the doorway. She stumbled and caught herself just before she was about to fall. A hairs-length from hitting her head on the doorframe. The woman in front of her, with black curly hair and tanned skin, clad in a low-cut t-shirt and jeans, muttered something before readjusting the bouquet of flowers she held under her left arm. Glanced down at the dirty, still slightly damp, ten year old in front of her. Then opened her mouth and spoke with smoke-strained voice;

"Watch where you're goin kid".

Marion blanched at the harsh tone, and mumbled an apology.

The older woman furrowed her brows. Perplexed by something. She stole a glance at the empty space behind Marion, then down to the city, and then back at Marion once again.

"What're you even doin here? This is no place for homeless orphans if that's what you are", the woman spoke, "you from a shipwreck or sumthin?".

Marion shook her head.

"N-No, I was drowning, then woke up on a beach not far from here", Marion said.

"Then a shipwreck? Look kid I can't just invite whatever lone kid I find to the inn, and I doubt you even have the money to pay for a room so why don't you scurry off and bother some other house?", the woman grumbled.

"N-no you don't understand!", Marion screeched, "I was drowning, in the Thames river, in London, and my parents are there, and when I woke up I met this rude guy who said I should go here! I don't know where I am!".

The older woman let out a loud groan. She glanced down at the village once more, the lantern's colors gleaming in her eyes, and muttered something under her breath. It sounded as rude as anything else the woman had said.

"I'm betting you met Lugh, the damn bastard," the woman sighed, defeated, "Fine! Close the fucking door behind you and follow me".

Marion frowned. Re-thinking her options. Go along with the rude woman, or go back into the village filled with strange folk?

The ten year old pulled the large door shut after her as she stepped into the building. It groaned again.

"I'm going to die…", she whispered and adjusted her backpack.

The small hallway Marion had stepped into was dimly lit by a pair of flickering lamps in dire need of a bulb-change. The room was as brown in colour as the outside had been, save for a few old paintings hanging on the walls, and the floor was clad in a rug which, although quite dirty from undoubtedly other inn guests shoes, felt surprisingly good against her naked feet. Harder than the grass she had previously been walking on, but much softer than the village's streets. The only furniture placed within the hall was a bench beside which the older woman was now standing, bouquet still under her arm and holding open a see-through door behind her.

Her expression was one stiff with impatience.

"You coming or not?", she asked.

Marion hurried to the woman's side at once.

"Since it was most likely Lugh who pointed you here I feel rather...obliged...to grant you this 'oh-so-humble' kindness", the woman spoke as she led Marion through what looked like a bar mixed with a weapon's museum.

The room was in one word; daring. It was not overly large in size, yet not small either. It looked much like one of those 'finer' hamburger restaurants Ellen sometimes took her to where they played bowling and ate dip smeared fries. Half a restaurant, half a bar. Only this one had countless weapons of all sorts decorating its walls instead of football banners. Weapons and what looked like wanted posters - did wanted posters even still exist? The place was daring. It looked like a criminal's den if she were to be honest. The comparison scared her. And still she had no choice but to follow the older woman.

At the far end of the room there was the bar counter. The widest reaching furniture in the room and also the most populated one. Men and women of much older ages than Marion sat on the bar stools chatting and playing card games. Occasionally drinking some sort of beverage she was sure was alcohol. The bad drink.

"You can have a room for the night but that's that", the woman beside Marion said in the same un-amused tone as always, "unless of course you find a job and need to stay longer - but who in their right mind would hire a - how old are you anyway?".

"Ten", Marion answered timidly.

The people present in the bar-restaurant were still ignoring the duo. To Marion's delight. They were loud. Talked like the people Brandt arrested. Were just over-all strange looking.

Marion wanted nothing to do with them. Nor the woman had she had a choice.

"Oh, well, I thought you were younger...I guess there would be some who would hire you in that case," the woman smirked at Marion, "I hear Marines like them young".

Marion halted.

 _What?_

That made no sense what-so-ever to say.

Marines were police, right? Police who took care of the sea. Why would they...Marion did not even understand what the woman meant. _Liked them young_. Something about the sentence sounded, felt _wrong_.

What did she mean? - How?

"You coming or what?", the woman asked and turned to face the young girl.

Marion glared at her.

"What? You weren't actually shocked by that...right?", the woman frowned, "Right. You're not me. Just forget what I said then. Stupid Cassis….that's my name by the way".

Marion looked at her strangely. Perplexed. Was this woman _sane_?

The woman, Cassis, waved at one of the people sitting at the bar. He had noticed them as he stood from the stool. Swaying slightly. Cassis then patted Marion on her back and continued to walk on. Away from the bar and on towards a door on which the word "Private" was harshly painted. A bad and hastily job.

"You can sleep in the extra room beside mine", Cassis spoke as she opened said door and led her inside another hallway.

This one was slimmer than the one at the entrance to the house, but more alighted. It was shorter as well, only covering six doors and a slim staircase to the second floor.

"Okay…", Marion mumbled. Still mulling over the words about the Marines that Cassis had spoken. What had she meant?

Cassis closed the door behind Marion and looked down at her.

The older woman frowned. Again.

"Look, about the Marines, just forget what I said, there are none here and they can't hurt you if you don't give them a reason to", Cassis spoke, "so just...stop that look...as if you're being haunted or something".

Marion shifted on her feet.

"I….okay…", she said.

Cassis grumbled but turned and began walking down the hallway.

The two passed the four first doors, each with the same hastily written texts painted upon their frames - first _Kitchen_ , then _Office_ , _Toilet_ and _Storage_ -, before Cassis stopped in front of the fifth door, a nameless one, and brought forth a keychain from her back pocket.

"The room's small, guess it was a large cupboard before I owned the place, but you'll fit for the night", she said.

A small silver key from the keychain fit the small lock on the door. There was a ' _klick_ ' - and Cassis swung open the door with a light shove.

"Just don't touch any of the maps lying about, we've been using it as a navigation's room...or something of the sort", Cassis spoke.

The room was small, indeed. Barely half of what she had at home, with a small window overlooking the village and a single bed beneath the windowsill - clad in sheets which were far from it's original white color. The room was covered with countless maps of places she did not recognize - but she didn't intent to question, nor touch, them as Cassis had requested.

"So there", Cassis said and gently pushed Marion into the room, "Now, if you'll excuse me I have a bouquet of flowers to deliver to….someone...the toilet's in the third room so you can wash up, there are some old clothes lying under the bed, might be a bit dusty, but it'll have to do, and food's in the kitchen - you'll just have to say that I sent you".

"Ah...okay, just, if you don't mind me asking where exactly am I?", Marion replied.

"What are you talking about?", Cassis questioned.

"Ehm...sorry, I just heard that the town is called Monmuth but I don't know where else I am", Marion answered.

"Monmouth. The _island's_ called Gar's Island. After the famous, well before Gol .D Roger's time at least, pirate Gar Jackerson", Cassis smiled, truthfully this time. No mocking undertone. No ironic or simply polite gesture.

It, somehow, surprised Marion. Had she really thought the woman was incapable of such a feat?

"Er...yeah….", Marion answered.

She had not understood half of what Cassis had said. Gar Jackerson? Gol D Roger? Never had any book she'd read mentioned either of the two names when it came to pirates. Maybe they were local legends. Like the Hounds of Baskerville. She hadn't understood most of what was said in that book. Sherlock was too advanced. But she knew the premise. Perhaps these two pirates were something similiar.

Cassis looked at her strangely however. As though she should have known at least one of the names. As though she should have reacted differently to the names. She said nothing to it though and simply waved at Marion, stiff, as she closed the door behind her. Leaving the ten year old to her thoughts in the dark room.

The lamp was not working.

Perfect.

Marion tried to turn the bulb, flick the switch trice. Yet the room remained in darkness.

The ten year old wanted to cry out. Possibly scream. But she remained quiet as new tears streamed down her dirty face. She sat down on the floor. It was slightly dusty. She tucked her knees under her chin and sighed. It came out as a choked sob. Marion wanted Ellen to be there, Brandt, her sister. Yet she had landed in this strange town, surrounded by strange people, bad people, all alone.

Her adoptive parents did not believe in God, nor did Marion if she were honest. But that night she found herself praying to anything and anyone to ' _please_ _help_ _me_ _out_ ' until she fell asleep. Curled into a ball on the floor like a scared cat.

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 **A/N: So how was it? I think, but loosely, that the next chapter will be out sooner, and quicker than this one was - unfortunately I can't promise anything because my life is and it feels like it's always been, a roller coaster. I pray for the sake of my guilt however.**

 **Please Review I appreciate any comments, and criticism even more.**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Surprise chapter! ...and it's several months late. I am so ashamed. But I am going to put in a more scheduled writing time, hopefully, and get this fic really going.**

 **This chapter is the last you'll see of ten year old Marion, we're gonna get into a more adult territory after this in other words. But boy is this chapter long! Take it as an apology if you will.**

 **Now without further ado, enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not under any circumstance own One Piece nor any of it's characters, if I did, well, I would have to change gender, name and nationality and I have no intention of doing do. I do however own several non-canon characters and parts of the plot.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 **Lost**

* * *

 _Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. - Corrie Ten Boom_

* * *

Marion, as she woke for good in the morning from a restless night's sleep, when red shone through the room's small window and birds began to chirp, was exhausted and every part of her body seemed to ache. Her limbs were stiff, her head was pounding and her feet felt as though they were on fire. Her cheeks still stained by tears after last nights ordeal and eyes surely red. She awoke with her back resting against the wooden bedstead, her knees tucked beneath her chin, and it was a wonder her whole body had not locked itself up due to the awkward position she had slept in. The hard floor had at least done a good job numbing her legs and buttocks. Not that Marion herself was not a culprit in the crime as well. But she blamed that on her nonexistent energy and sleep deprived stubbornness. Why move up into the bed when she was perfectly exhausted there on the floor?

Marion strained herself rising to her feet. Groaning as her bones creaked like an old woman's and her limbs popped. But she stood nonetheless and finally decided to climb atop the bed in front of the window. On the small windowsill she placed her backpack, which she had used as a cushion when she'd slept on the floor. Her fingers numb as she let go of the thing - she held it like a stuffed animal through the night. Then Marion flipped the lock on the window and opened it.

Fresh air swept into the room with the force of a typhoon. Or, to Marion's fatigued mind it felt so. Swift and wild, mixed with the smell of salt and ocean - one Marion had always loved. The cold morning air brought her mind out of it's haze, as though she had splashed ice cold water on her face, and she exhaled shakily once the sight of the small fishermen, pirates, village embedded itself in her mind. It was all real. The night before had really happened.

That was a surreal thought in on itself.

The small village was still far asleep. Only a lone fisherman standing by his boat at the harbor seemed to be awake yet, readying himself to ride out and start his day of fishing. The colorful lanterns of last night had been put out, and compared to the intense red and orange painting the east in the sky as dawn chased the night away the colorful widows of every wooden building in the town seemed dull. _Too bad_ , Marion thought. It had been the most beautiful thing about the village. Instead the town had taken on a cloak of dirt and grime, rivaling the stories she'd heard and read about Victorian London. Or any other place before modern things of hygiene were invented for that matter.

After a few minutes of simply gazing lazily upon the village, Marion closed the window and stepped down from the bed.

Before she decided to head for the bathroom that had been pointed out to her the night before Marion found her gaze caught on the many, many rows and stacks of hand-drawn maps. The brass parchment shone golden in the morning light. Tiptoeing, because her feet ached with every step she took - she needed to clean and bandage her feet before something worse happened to them -, to one of the piles she noticed that they depicted neither any place she recognized, nor did they look like any other 21st century map she'd ever seen. They looked old, very old, yet were seemingly recently drawn judging by the half finished ones on the one small desk standing by the door. The only thing that seemed to not be dusty in the room. Beside the unfinished maps stood an opened, but full inkwell. Perhaps it was a hobby of someone who lived there?

Marion frowned and tiptoed back to the bed. She crouched by it and fished with her fingers beneath the thing until her hands touched something soft. The clothes Cassis had mentioned before she'd left her in the dark room. She dragged the clothes out from beneath the bed and hit them a few times to remove the dust which had piled on top of them. How long had it been since someone had worn them? Marion wasn't sure she wanted to know.

The clothes were a pair of jeans shorts with suspenders and a grey t-shirt. She usually preferred dresses but beggars can't be choosers. They were good enough until she could change at home, which she hoped wasn't a long time off.

The young girl carefully tiptoed out the room, the door groaned as she opened it, and moved to the bathroom, through the small corridor and into the third door labeled by it's function. She was fully intent on taking a long bath had it such a thing, and as she opened the labeled door, this one also creaking, she was not disappointed.

While most of what the ten year old had seen of the inn had been brown, and dusty, or something associated with the bad drink - alcohol - the bathroom was not such a place. Pristine peach marble made up the walls and floor of the room, the ceiling painted white, and it smelled like blueberries. Her favorite berry. In front of her, in the far end of the square room, stood a porcelain white bathtub with a shower. Beside the bathtub was a small row of cabinets and on the third one there was a squeaky clean washbasin with a mirror hanging on the wall above it. Opposite that stood the, just as white and spotless, toilet. Above it there was a clock which read 5.30. Marion couldn't remember the last time she had wakened so early.

The small bathroom reminded her of the one at her house, only hers was slightly larger. The thought of her home saddened her.

Marion closed the door behind her, locking it and testing said locking twice for good measure. She wriggled out of her clothes, all of them as dirty as she'd ever seen them, and took off the red wristwatch, which still did not seem to work, throwing it all on a heap on the floor. Maybe she could ask the innkeeper, weather that was Cassis or someone else, if she could wash them. The clock however she did not know what to do with. It was supposed to have been waterproof.

The silver necklace she wore, with the circular locket, she laid upon the cabinet beside the tub. She was glad that had not been a thing she lost in the near drowning. It was the only thing, along with a double which was Tereza's, she owned from her biological parents, and though she wasn't specifically interested in who they were, nor why they had given their children the lockets and then abandoned them at a beach, she still thought it one of her most prized possessions. That and the words written within it; " _As a bird flies, so does it's children_ ".

Marion turned the knob on the bath faucet and let the hot water flow into the tub. When it had become about half full Marion stepped in - hissing as the scalding water burned her cold skin. She scrubbed herself clean from yesterday's dirt and grime with a soap she found by the side of the tub and carefully cleaned her feet from blisters and sand, all the while they bled. The dirt and grime and blood mixed with the water and turned it near brown. It looked awful.

For three hours she sat in the water, soaking, easing up her tense muscles. And when she finally finished Marion felt better than she'd thought possible. At least in this place.

As she let the dirty water drain Marion washed her dress and underwear in the washbasin - they were dirtier than she had been and it did not take long before the water turned murky and brown. She had to soap the clothes twice before the dirt was gone and her dress no longer smelled of seaweed, sand and sweat. Before she put her borrowed clothes on Marion found a hairdryer in one of the cupboards, the first one closest to the door, and she used that to dry her panties - which were the only pair she owned at the moment. The dress she hang over a towel rack beside the bathtub.

When Marion exited the bathroom she wore the clothes she'd come to borrow, her necklace was once again around her neck and she had braided her hair. Her clock she had decided to, for the time being, let lay in her dress' pocket. She had no use for it as it seemed broken, but didn't want to throw it away if it could be fixed. Marion had also bandaged her feet, though clumsily, as the bleeding had not yet stopped. She decided it would be a lesson for later times. Running around without shoes - where hers still by the dock at the Thames? - would only lead to pain. And bleeding.

Still, Marion felt better than she had in the last couple of hours, loads better.

Though she was very hungry.

Thinking with her stomach, Marion then decided to head towards the kitchen, the first door in the corridor, where now noises - shouts and clatter - could be heard from. The inn had awakened during her bath it seemed. When she opened the door she was greeted by the sight of a kitchen on fire. Or...it looked. The kitchen was by far not the most well kept she had seen, but by far the liveliest. Industry lights hung from the ceiling, casting blinding light on the marbled floor and all which stood on it. Ten chefs and/or cooks stormed back and forth between stations with food, utensils and other things she could not name in their hands. Transfixed in their own world as they prepared meals for the inn's guests. Whether breakfast, lunch or both Marion could not point out. Salmon was fried at the same time as oatmeal was baked. The stoves burned and the dishwasher washed. Everywhere before her Marion could hear something clink, see some sort of food be prepared or smell something mouthwatering.

As someone who had never been in a restaurant's kitchen before this was an extraordinary thing to witness for Marion.

" _Hey, is the bread done?!_ ", one of the cooks shouted from somewhere within the bustle.

" _Yeah_ _! But the cheese's rotting!_ ", another yelled.

" _Take the other one then, the one we used yesterday for the gratin!_ ".

None of the men or women working in the kitchen had noticed Marion's entrance yet, which she deemed lucky - some of the employees looked rather...scary. But it was no wonder. Nothing was quiet, and everything made some sort of noise in the room. It was so loud in fact that even as she stood closest to the open door Marion could not hear, or simply did not notice, when someone approached her from behind.

" _Bo!_ ".

Marion screamed. And as through it were the trigger to a domino staple; the chef closest to her dropped the pan he'd been holding, one of the few women in the kitchen let out a shriek, another chef cursed, and the door on the other side of the room - Marion guessed lead to the bar area - slammed open. It would have been the funniest thing she'd seen had Marion not been frightened stiff.

What followed was brief silence - save the water which still hissed and the food which was still cooking - then the loud, feminine, laughter of the person behind Marion broke through.

Marion turned her head, and was greeted by the sight of the eccentric Cassis, howling in laughter at both her and the employees unfortunate surprise.

The older woman and , Marion suspected, owner of the inn looked nothing like she had last night. Instead of the carefully combed array of black hair she had when Marion ran into her, Cassis' hair this morning was in a disarray of tangles and knots. Sticking out everywhere. She wore a plain, red, button up pyjama with white cuffs, a necklace Marion hadn't seen yesterday around her neck (a golden chain with a small charm) and walked barefoot. That must have been the reason Marion hadn't heard the woman as she'd approached.

After a few moments Cassis ceased her laughing. But still smiled a cheshire smile, and her shoulders shook slightly.

"The - _rats_ \- boss! What the hell was that?!", the chef who had dropped the pan then asked. He looked as through he were a teen still, perhaps close to becoming an adult, and had a tribal tattoo on his neck, sticking out beneath the hem of his chef's uniform. The man glared at the black haired woman, though Marion couldn't help but to think that it wasn't very serious.

"Oh, _man_! You should have seen your faces!", Cassis chuckled and did a strange thing. She patted Marion on the head as though she were a dog.

While some of the cooks snickered along with the older woman, others then shook their heads and went back to work. One, a large man with a mustache, even slammed his knife down on the cutting board before him. Muttering angrily under his breath. Marion couldn't say she blamed him.

"That was mean...", Marion muttered, and sent a weak glare up at Cassis. She couldn't keep up her charade for long however and her frown soon blossomed into a smile. What else could she do? It was a harmless prank, and if Marion were to stay angry at the woman she should have stayed angry at Tereza whenever she had done the same. Marion never could.

"Who's the kid, Cass?", a chef standing by one of the larger stoves asked. He was, to put it bluntly, a dwarf, with a trimmed brown beard and squinting eyes.

Cassis smiled down at Marion, mischief glinting in her eyes. That was a look Marion hadn't seen the night before, nor had she acted as playful - kind even -, what had happened to the annoyed woman from last night?

"She's a stray I picked up last night", Cassis frowned and her eyebrows quirked. A questioning look overcame the older woman's face, and she averted her eyes to the white ceiling before once again looking at Marion. "...what is your name pup?".

Ah, introductions had been forgotten last night, and had she just called Marion "pup"?

"ehm...It's Marion, Marion Williams...ah, but Rion's okay too", Marion answered.

"Rion, huh? Sounds like something from West Blue...", Cassis mumbled, "You from there?".

Marion shook her head. She had never even heard of a place named so.

"No, I'm from London", she said.

The dwarf by the stove snorted, "That's a name of an island, right kid? Cass meant what sea you were from".

Sea? What did he mean sea? This dwarf was as strange as the man with the rough accent from yesterday. She wondered absently if the dwarf would also not know of the Thames, or even Great Britain as a whole, as the man from yesterday had. She wouldn't be surprised if it were so. The island (because as far as Marion knew it was one) just continued to become stranger and stranger.

"So, are you from here, or any of the other three seas?", Cassis asked and crouched to Marion's height. The older woman was smiling again, and looking at the ten year old with something akin to pity - though not quite. "You don't really look like someone who's been to the Grand Line".

There was a word Marion recognized, "the Grand Line". However she could not quite remember where she had heard it. Marion did not recall it being a real place. But perhaps a nickname for one?

Marion opted for playing the confused card when she answered, "I...uh...don't know? Around here I guess...".

Cassis frowned at Marion's answer. But seemed to pay it no further attention. Instead, Cassis patted Marion on the head as tough she were a dog, before standing once more. Stretching her arm and yawning all the while.

"Well, no use in thinking about that now. Let's just eat something", she said when her yawning had ceased.

"ah, okay", Marion replied.

Cassis then yelled at one of the cooks, the one with the tattoo on his throat, to bring them both some food. While Marion stood and waited, still by the door, Cassis walked up to one of the cupboards beside the entrance and brought out two glasses. Both of them she filled to the brim with water from the sink upon the cupboard beside her. Taking a large gulp from one of the glasses she walked back to Marion and handed the other to her. Marion immediately drained the whole thing.

"Thirsty aren't ya?", Cassis teased, but drained her own glass soon after.

Marion simply nodded, and walked over to the sink to fill her glass again.

"Oh, and if you don't mind", Cassis addressed Marion again, "I have a letter which needs to be delivered to the old guy outside town, Lugh, the one who sent you here yesterday? I was wondering if you would like to do the honors? I need it to be delivered as fast as possible, but neither I nor my dear employees have the time today".

Marion turned from the sink when her glass was full again and walked back to Cassis - who now had seated herself upon the counter beside the door, where the tattooed teenager had stood before, cutting carrots. Cassis' eyes were fixed on Marion's feet as she approached, and remained upon them when Marion had stopped.

"If your feet aren't too hurt that is...didn't you have any shoes on yesterday pup?", Cassis asked, but she appeared to not expect an answer from the ten year old, and her eyes then drifted to the approaching tattooed cook with two food filled plates in one hand and cutlery in the other. "Ah, here's our food, thanks Arima".

The tattooed teen, Arima, smiled and handed one of the plates, filled with scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon, to Cassis - along with a knife and a fork. The other plate, filled with much the same things, Arima gave to Marion. But not before commenting; "Here ya go kid, the best breakfast you'll ever have".

Marion took the plate (and was also given a spoon, a fork and a knife), and sat down on the, relatively clean, floor with her back to the cupboard opposite the one Cassis sat on. The food smelled mouthwatering. She filled the spoon with the scrambled eggs and stuffed it in her mouth.

It tasted divine.

Marion, as soon as she had chewed and swallowed the first bite, took another spoonful of the food, then another, and another. She had hardly noticed how hungry she was until the plate was before her, and soon she had eaten nearly all of the food she'd been given. All the while Cassis had long since eaten her share and was talking to Arima - who seemed proud due to how much Marion ate of (what she guessed was) his food.

"Told ya kid, the best you'll ever have", Arima spoke when Marion stood and gave the near empty plate back to him. She thought of washing and putting the plate away by herself - Ellen had always insisted she do so on her own - but figured she did not know where anything was in the kitchen.

"Maybe, I might find some I like better, but as of yet they're the best", Marion replied and grinned.

Arima laughed and addressed Cassis, "I like the kid. But as I was saying, room 32 is a mess, and the captain staying there wants to speak with ya".

Cassis frowned and looked to the ceiling again. It appeared she did that whenever she thought of something. She rubbed her temple, exasperated, and hopped down from the counter. She looked down at Marion once then back at Arima.

"Tell the bastard I'm on my way, I'm just gonna get the pup going then I'll deal with him", she said and crouched to Marion's height.

Arima nodded and walked, through the crowd of tinkering cooks, towards a door on the other side of the room which Marion could only guess lead to the bar and restaurant area she had seen the day before. He closed the door behind him just as Cassis reached inside one of her pyjama pants' pocket and took out a letter. Marion couldn't see an address written on it - jokingly, she amused the idea of this town not having any. Cassis held out the letter for Marion like an offering.

"So, can you do me this little favor?", she asked.

Marion thought on it. Did she want to see the strange man again? No, definitely not, Ellen had always claimed that mad people were best left alone - depending on _how_ mad they were. But did she want to give something back to Cassis for helping her? Yes, she very much would like to do so. There seemed to be no police or military - save the mentioned marines - and Cassis had no obligation to neither give Marion shelter nor food. She had still done this.

Marion still wanted to head home as fast as possible however.

"I can do it, but I want to borrow a phone when I get back", Marion requested.

A puzzled expression blossomed on Cassis face.

"A what?", she asked.

Marion wanted to dump her head into some water. Maybe she had fallen into a coma after the drowning and instead was dreaming inside a hospital. _Ugh_ , Marion thought, she hated hospitals ever since her sister's vanishing act. What kind of people did not know about a phone?

"A telephone? I...need to call my parents...", Marion tried again.

Cassis' frown deepened. She was staring at Marion with that mix of pity and amusement again. Did she think Marion was joking?

"I'm sorry, is that a nickname for a den den mushi?", Cassis asked, her tone uncertain.

Marion blanched. She really must have fallen into a coma, or maybe she was dead. Could Cassis and the man from yesterday too be delusional? Was this a disease on the island? Marion decided for the moment to let the matter go and maybe ask some of the other citizens and people in the town for answers. Though if everyone she talked to would have the same answer she would not know what to do. Marion nodded, slowly.

"Yes...um...well I'll give the letter to...", Marion said.

"Lugh, his name is Lugh Boyd, really smart man, good with children so you shouldn't have any problems with him", Cassis said and her smile was upon her lips again. Though she still appeared perplexed about Marion's words.

"Lugh, okay", Marion mumbled and accepted the letter. The man, smart? Marion didn't know if she could believe it. She stuffed the letter into her left pocket. Then Cassis stood up and stretched.

"Okay, so you can take the backdoor out the inn, just at the end of the hall past my room, and then you'll follow the small road down the cliff, bam! There the old man's door!", Cassis chuckled, "You would have to have the directional sense of a crab to miss it".

Marion nodded. She doubted the road would be very hard to find when she'd managed just good last night when it had been dark.

"So, it's a done deal, you get the letter to the old man, and you can borrow my den den?", Cassis said, and took a step towards the open door behind them.

"Yeah, sure", Marion said.

Cassis turned and started for the door Arima had exited through, but just as Marion was about to leave the kitchen as well Cassis turned back and called out, "Oh, and you should borrow a pair of my shoes, take the fluffy ones, it'll be good for your feet!".

Marion grinned. Where had the annoyed woman from yesterday gone?

"Yeah, sure!", Marion called back before she broke out in giggles.

* * *

#

* * *

Lugh Boyd sat on the flaying recliner outside of his house, looking over the waves lapping at the cliffs in front of him, with a smoking cigarette between his chapped lips and squeaking seagulls above his head. The sun shone brightly upon the island, and midday had just about passed. In his hand Lugh held a small crossbow loaded with bolts he fully intended to fire.

The middle aged man, with dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail, a slight burn on his neck, and his white t-shirt torn at the front, had decided upon his waking that morning, that damned be his reasons for it, he would murder the fuck out of the flying pests shitting on his roof that day - if it so earned him an audience in hell later in life.

He had been sitting upon the old recliner since daybreak, and while no hits upon the evasive birds had been made, he had earned himself a nasty stiffness he was sure would haunt him throughout the day. And night if he was unlucky. Not that he needed help with his inability to sleep at night. His restlessness during the days already did that for him. It was as though his body cried out for him to get back out into the sea.

Unfortunately his legs, now two peglegs, deemed that wish impossible.

Lugh pushed the safety button on the modified crossbow, for the fifth time that day, and aimed it on one of the seagulls. A bolt was automatically loaded into the flight groove. Focusing on his target the man let his pointer finger slide to the trigger.

 _Bang!_

The bolt hit the target dead on. One of the screeching birds fell from the sky, letting out a final squawk, before plunging into the depths of the sea beneath the cliffs. Lugh felt like letting out a holler of victory, but refrained. Instead he let a smirk grace his lips as the rest of the white feathered pests, in panic, fled the area he deemed his. It reached from his house, all the way to the beginning of the forest. Which was an impressive size since there was the giant glade between the two.

Lugh arose from the chair, his bones groaning and his limbs - those that were left - numbing. He stumbled upon his wooden legs, and had to grip the house frame as to not fall over. This happened way too often since he'd lost his legs. Lugh cursed and straightened up, stretching his arms before lightly hitting his left pegleg against the grassy ground beneath him. It helped with the numbness. But just as he was about to head inside his house, to bring out a book to read for the remainder of the day, a loud knock reached his ears.

 _Damn ta hell it many visitors I get lately_ , Lugh thought. He pushed the safety button on the crossbow again, and watched the recently reloaded bolt shift into the holster attached to it. Though he had been using the weapon since his sailing years, Lugh couldn't stop marveling at the piece. The automatic crossbow, he hadn't thought the creation of one would be possible. His captain had of course proved him wrong - once again. And damn he missed that.

Another knock was heard, and Lugh stumbled around the corner of the house to greet his quest.

Standing by the door was the girl from last night, clad in a pair of shorts with suspenders and a grey t-shirt, with her feet bandaged and stuck into a pair of pink bunny slippers. The girl had red hair the color of blood - which he had not seen yesterday when it had been dark - and she'd braided it rather clumsily. She also had a small scar along her right upper arm. Wonder where she'd gotten it? She didn't seem to have lived through all too many hardships in his eyes. Then again the world was a dangerous place - Lugh knew that better than most. The girl was tapping her right foot against the gravel in front of his door, but it seemed to not be because of impatience as she was also humming calmly - a lullaby he knew all to well.

"Lass, what be ye doing here?", Lugh asked and stopped in his stumbling a few paces from the girl. Had she told him her name yesterday? Or not? Lugh couldn't remember since he'd anyway been half asleep during that time.

The girl turned to face Lugh, her expression one of surprise. Her eyes took in the no doubt rather intimidating man in front of her. Blue eyes lastly fixating on his peglegs.

"Oh! um...hi...Mr Lugh?", she said, and she looked back up at Lugh's face.

"Ahoy, strange little lass from yesterday", Lugh chuckled, the poor girl was nervous, frightened out of her skin, "Didn't ye want to return to yer parents? What 'r ye still doing here on 'tis borin' island?".

The girl frowned, her eyes glazing over in thought, and Lugh couldn't help but to notice how familiar the expression was. Much more how familiar she looked over all. Had they perhaps met sometime before? When he was out sailing? Did she come from a neighboring town?

"I...yes I wan't to go home...but...um...Cassis sent me here to give you this letter...she said it was important...", the girl said and her left hand reached into her left pocket, indeed pulling out a letter. She reached out her hand and offered him the letter.

Lugh took the parchment but did not open it yet.

"Ya got a name lass?", he instead asked.

"Yeah, I mean yes, of course...It's Rion", the girl mumbled, "well...actually Marion but Rion's what everyone else calls me so...".

That was a name he'd heard before. The girl couldn't be more than ten years old, at most, and the name, along with another...Terres? Tareza? Tereza! That was what his captain had opted for as names for her twins. What a laughable coincidence. That he would come over a lost girl with the same name, and relative looks, as his captain's daughter. Too bad the twins had died in an accident five years past, otherwise he might have found a reason to send for his captain again. Wherever she was hiding at the moment.

Lugh frowned, lost in thought. His captain - or former captain as it was - had disbanded their crew of pirates when she'd lost both her twin girls to an animal attack on her home island in the Grand Line. The most dangerous sea-lane in the world - he had warned that raising the girl's there would be a hit or miss mission, there would be no in between and that the captain was taking a huge risk. After the accident of his Captain's children he'd lost both his legs in a Marine raid - and thus his days on the sea had ended.

Lugh leaned himself against the wall of his house, just beside the door and the girl. Marion. Then he decided to open the letter.

The letter was written by Cassis Baymer alright. There was no mistaking the woman's hasty writing. With an awkward little greeting of _'Lugh, you need to see to this_ ' Cassis had started the letter, and what followed where three crossed over sentences Lugh could not read. He scanned the letter quickly. Roughly reading through the rundown of things the beast in the forest had stolen, and the people it had killed.

The message of the letter was clear; _If someone don't kill that beast soon, Monmouth was going to become a ghost town._ Lugh grumbled. Cassis wanted him to kill it no doubt. She knew everyone else would charge the town for it - but him she could use without a single beli being spent, the witch of a woman.

"Um...Mr Lugh?", Marion asked and brought the middle aged man's attention to her again, "Can...can I go? I don't know if you want me to give Cassis something in return so...".

Lugh laughed and shook his head.

"Ye can be off lass, I be not gonna keep ye any longer", he said.

Marion nodded and started back toward the small town. Waving a hesitant 'goodbye' to Lugh before following his trampled up path again.

Lugh in turn shook his head and thoroughly read the letter again. It seemed he was forced to head out hunting this night. The middle aged man sighed. As though he hadn't been doing enough pest control for the day.

 _What a pain._

* * *

#

* * *

Monmouth was quiet when Marion walked into the town after her delivery. The streets were near empty, save a few odd cases who looked drunk, and the only real noise which could be heard in the area was the cries of the seagulls - annoying pests - and the chirping of the birds in the forest behind the inn. The waves lapping at the shore drowned out by the white feathered birds. It looked quite forlorn compared to the night before. As though it was sleeping - still as dead as she'd seen it this morning. Marion thought it had looked strange when she'd stood on top of the hill, ready to head inside of the inn again and ask after the phone. What kind of town slept during the day and was awake only at night?

She had then decided to sightsee for a while. Explore while the town was empty of people who scared her.

Marion walked through the town, looking mainly at the open, but empty, shops along the first of the two streets the town consisted of. She entered the bakery when she came across it - and was greeted kindly by the baker in charge of the place (she knew so because he told her). He was a chubby man with dark skin and a kind smile. Marion looked at the pastry and bread displayed by the counter, it all looked very tasty, but had to decline when the baker asked if she wanted to buy anything. Explaining that she didn't have any money due to her near drowning. The baker, upon hearing her story, gave Marion a sample of a cinnamon bun.

"Oh god thank you so much!", Marion said and smiled at the baker, "It looks very tasty!".

"Ah, it's no matter little miss! Shipwrecks are common, but always horrible, it's the least I can do for someone who has just lived through it", the baker said.

Marion hadn't claimed shipwreck when she'd told him of how she'd gotten to the island, but didn't know what else to say. That she had been drowning at the Thames? Would the baker even believe her? No one she had met on the island even knew of London - she'd even asked two of the chefs at the inn before she had gone and delivered the letter to Mr Lugh. But none knew of anything she mentioned and had instead looked at her with immense pity.

Marion thought however, maybe is she took another approach she could get some understandable answers.

"Say do you know of a place called the United Kingdom?", Marion asked and looked curiously at the baker.

"Can't say I have miss...that were you're from? Cause none if the islands around here are called that", the baker spoke sadly.

Marion frowned, but played it off as being puzzled when she faked a laugh and spoke, "Nah, it's a place in a book I've read, but it's supposed to be real, and I want to find it someday!".

The baker smiled and waved her off when Marion started for the door to the bakery with her cinnamon bun in hand.

"Have a good day little miss! And good luck with finding that place!", he called, and Marion waved back at him as she closed the door behind her.

Out on the street again, while savoring a bite of her cinnamon bun, Marion frowned as her head lost itself in thought while heading down further upon the street - the harbor and the vast sea beyond it soon opening up before her. The baker hadn't heard of her home either. Maybe she truly was dreaming? It would explain a lot of things. Like how vastly Cassis' character had changed over night. Though when she thought about it, Marion realized that it happened to both Brandt and Ellen quite often as well. Ellen or Brandt would come home after work - annoyed and grumpy - but after a night's sleep (and strange snores) either of the both would be happy in the morning.

But this whole island being a dream could at least explain why there were so many strangely dressed people everywhere, and why pirates still seemed to exist. Marion looked over a drunk person by one of the piers where the harbor started. Then again, it didn't explain why she was hurting this morning. Or yesterday. Nor how she could taste the deliciousness of the cinnamon bun in her hand. Nor the scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon she'd had this morning.

Marion rounded the corner of the first street in the town and started down the second one with a frown upon her lips. None of anything here made any sense. She was about to take another bite of the delicious cinnamon bun when she stumbled over a rouge rock in her way. She fell, the cinnamon bun slipping from her hands, and screeched.

But before Marion met the hard gravel beneath her feet with her face, a muscular arm came seemingly out of nowhere and saved her from the impact. Helping her straighten up and then patting her on the head. Well, that was strange.

"What do we have here?", a croaky voice spoke from beside her.

Winded, Marion turned her head and was met with the sight of three people, dressed every bit the classical pirate with sashes around their stomachs and swords at their hips. Her savior, a muscular man with a moustache and no shirt on (only a pair of tight fitting, worn, red pants), stood in front of his two companions and held a hand out to Marion. Almost like a gentleman - had it not been for the quite obvious sneer upon his face. The two companions, one tall and lanky the other fat and short, wore similar sneers.

The sight unnerved Marion.

"A birdie lost from her nest, ay?", her savior asked, or more like stated, and his companions chuckled.

"No, I am not lost...Mr...", Marion lied, the feeling of dread creeping up from her toes to her stomach, "I thank you for catching me though, I could have gotten a nasty bruise from the fall".

Marion faked a smile. Better be polite and not agitate, that was what Brandt always said should she ever end up in a uncomfortable position like this, then she was supposed to run. Run and never look back.

"Oh? Cause, by that necklace - it _is_ silver right? - you would have nothing to to with 'tis island. They're dirt poor here!", her savior said, a chortle escaping his throat, "Can't even keep family heirlooms in their houses anymore!".

Marion blanched. Was he, they, going to rob her? It was just a necklace though, a small thing from her blood related parents, how much could one such thing be worth? Marion's body tensed, the muscles in her legs twitching as they prepared to flee. Should she do it now, or wait just a bit longer?

"You're a kid from some rich family on another island nearby aren't ya?", the man smiled, a cruel smile with promises of hurt and deceit, and gripped Maerion's jaw painfully, "I can see it in your eyes kid, you've never seen bloodshed, not a single death, yet everyone living in this god's forsaken town has. Nearly daily, why is that, huh?".

Marion wrenched herself loose from the man's grip and took of sprinting. Her feet, and the 'shoes' she wore protesting by either sending a spark of pain up her calf or the slippers nearly slipping off her feet. Behind her she heard the man call out to his companions to chase her, and shortly after she heard the sound of heavy footsteps in the dirt. The sound egged her on, and she quickened her pace. Marion tore through the empty street like a storm, her eyes drifting from side to side to see if there was anybody who could help her. But the sides of the street was just filled with drunks. She ran to the start of the hill leading to the inn, pushing her feet toward until she reached the front door.

But an arm wrapped itself around her stomach before she could grip the handle and open the door.

"C'mon little wench!", the arm's owner spoke.

Marion cared little for which of the criminals had gotten to her, she was trapped - and thus became an animal willing to do anything to regain freedom even if it meant harming the man, violence was a thing she condemned. She kicked and hit as the man held her against him, trying to limit her movement, she yelled - until the man placed his free hand over her mouth. Marion shoved her head back as forcefully as she could and smacked him right in the nose. In pain, the pursuer loosened his grip, and Marion wrestled herself free of his grip.

She ran off heading for the back door. But when she rounded the last corner of the house and could see both the intimidating forest rise before her like a hungry wolf, and the door which would lead her to safety, Marion also saw the man who had saved her from her fall and his fatter companion. The latter was panting terribly. It seemed her 'savior' was not completely stupid, at least aware of her only options if nothing else, and the bastard had the audacity to look smug about it. His yellowed teeth shining in the withering daylight as he grinned when she came ever closer. Her feet were still carrying her forward. Then for a moment, a second take or give, Marion halted, defeat and fear washing over her. Like a deer caught in headlights. But when she heard footsteps behind her, as well as saw the duo before her begin to move, she gave flight and sprinted off into the forest. No second thoughts given.

* * *

#

* * *

 _I have just 'bout had it wit' visitors this day_ \- Lugh thunderously thought when, for the second time that day - and that was already enough - a knock came from his door.

The middle aged man had just about started the preparations for his dinner, fried seagull meat with rice, when he'd been interrupted. With an angry growl, and a glare out the nearest window, he threw the washcloth he'd been using to clean his one frying pan into the kitchen sink before him. He stalked out of the small kitchen, heavy footsteps resounding in his small house - the house had but two rooms, kitchen, living room and bedroom in one area and but his bathroom had it's own walls and floor -, and forth to the door. Much like the night before, Lugh threw open the upper part of his stable door with a ' _slam!_ '. He was already going to head out to hunt the beast soon. Enough interruptions were enough.

Before Lugh, clad in a training overall and with a lantern at hands, stood Cassis Beauman. Olive eyes staring at him in guilt. Her otherwise neatly combed hair was in a disarray and she was panting as though she'd been running a marathon.

"Lugh...oh by the devils of the seas", Cassis heaved out.

"Cassis, be ye alright?", Lugh asked, perplexed, a single graying brow arched. Cassis was not often troubled, strong willed and stubborn by nature, he had known her since she were a kid. Or teen. He couldn't quite recall. She had convinced the towns folk to let him stay on the island however, and for that he owed her greatly. It was the reason he could never say no to her - whatever it might entail.

"The pup, Rion...the kid you sent to me yesterday, damn, I shouldn't have let her out of my sight!", Cassis swore, "The pirates from yesterday, I forgot what they called themselves, they found the pup when she got back from delivering your letter and...fuck...I don't know why but they chased after her!".

Lugh felt guilt roar to life deep within his stomach though it wasn't his to feel. Hadn't he warned the kid last night? Monmouth was a pirates town. There were incidents concerning pirates happening every day, all year. Even the nearby Marine base often dared not come close to the island in fear of being overrun by the pure number of pirates who both visited and lived here. The whole island was named after a pirate for mercy's sake! Had no one told the kid that? Had no one cared to warn her?

"That fool ran right into th' hands 'o them scumbags?", Lugh sighed. He knew what would come next. Whether he wanted it or not. The look in the woman's eyes gave it all away. As if hunting the beast wasn't enough now. He hadn't even gotten to eat, and his stomach was already showing signs of protest.

"Not exactly…", Cassis mumbled.

Lugh furrowed his eyebrows. What then?

"What do ye mean?", Lugh huffed.

"Well, she's a smart lil pup if nothing else….", Cassis sighed and rubbed her temple with the hand not holding the lantern, "before those bastards managed to get ahold of her she ran into the forest. Beast be damned apparently. Both I and Arima saw the whole thing from the second floor when we cleaned up after a customer...I was too slow to get down to her before it all happened".

"And now you want me to go after her…", Lugh growled. The kid was bad news. A single day on the island and she'd already caused more trouble than Cassis had during her whole life.

Lugh was loathe to admit that the kid reminded him too much of his former Captain - everything she had done, looked like, was a mirror of his captain, the gods were mocking him.

"Well you are hunting the beast in the forest, and those idiot pirates ran right after her into the forest as well. You are the strongest pirate I know Lugh, and that pup is just home sick. She's scared", Cassis spoke, firmly, and glanced at the forest.

"Former Pirate", Lugh growled.

But instead of withdrawing from Cassis request, as he ought to do - the kid had gotten herself into that screwery there, right? - he gripped his crossbow from it's place on the drawer beside the door and swung open the rest of the stable door. Cassis moved away just in time not to get hit by the thing. The sun was setting, he saw when he stepped out of the house, a bloody red color dancing in the sky to the west. And the seagulls, skypests, had quieted. Perhaps due to Lugh's slaughter of them. It was near silence had it not been for the rustle of leaves coming from the forest.

"Fine, I gunna do as ye request, ye damned witch of a woman", Lugh growled.

Lugh closed his stable door and locked it with a key hanging on a chain around his neck. A former crew mate had crafted that one.

"...just don't be too harsh on the kid, she's young Lugh. And she reminds me a bit of what you have told me about Captain Alcippe", Cassis said and Lugh could practically see her smile, though his back was turned on her.

"Don't speak her moniker aroun' me", Lugh snarled and started into the glade in front of the forest. His peglegs forcing him to limp.

He could hear Cassis sigh somewhere behind him, the sound loud in the silence, but ignored her annoyance. He knew her opinion on his former Captain. She had stated it too many times for him to ever forget it, or forgive himself for not having thought the same when he'd said his goodbyes to the Cap'n. _'Yer fuckin betrayin the crew ere Cap'n!'_ , that was what he'd said upon their farewell, and she'd just lost her kids.

And it all because he'd been jealous. What a piece of work he was.

When the glade ended, and the grass beneath his peglegs turned to moss, Lugh took of in a half sprint. He would find the child, fast, kill the beast, then he would be allowed to return to his daily routine of brooding about his past - and finally eat his supper.

* * *

#

* * *

Marion reeled and plunged into the thick vegetation of yet another gathering of trees. Throwing herself past trunks as thick as cars, with her heart pounding loudly in her ears and her feet throbbing. Ignoring the branches clawing at her exposed skin and face. Though her small frame and quick maneuvering within the forest's terrain had given her some leverage in the chase, children were naturally more agile than adults after all, Marion could still hear the sounds of branches snapping as the criminals hunted her footsteps. The forest was thick and old, and horrendously dark with only the occasional beam of sunset light forcing itself through the trees crowns. The terrain like a ocean to get lost in. A vast sea of roots, moss and stone when you had no map to guide you and no sky to look up upon.

It was nauseating both to Marion's eyes and mind. She couldn't stand forests, too easy to get lost in, and the adamant pirates clouded her mind with fear.

It came as no surprise then when she lurched, her upper body toppling as her foot caught in a root she had not seen, and fell down a hill covered in wet leaves. She slid awkwardly, trying to get a footing, but slammed her head against a stump. Marion whimpered at the impact, white hot pain exploding behind her eyes. Her vision swam.

Not a moment later Marion heard her pursuers run past her.

Marion lay at the bottom of the hill against a hollowed out tree, cradling her head while the pain racked through her. She groaned, her mouth against the ground, but the sound came out as a sob. Thick wetness she could only guess was blood drenched her fingers, slickening her hair and running down her temple to her throat. Marion let out a ragged breath and shut her eyes.

A scream pierced through the air just as some of the last rays of daylight forced itself through the forests leaves.

Marion stilled.

The scream had come from the direction her pursuers had run off to - if her head was not completely delusional. The ten year old opened her eyes carefully, as though whatever had brought on the scream would be before her when she did, but she saw only leaves and moss. A bird chirped somewhere not too far from her form. The leaves rustled. Then another scream followed. Marion shut her eyes again and curled in on herself. Trying to make her form as small as possible. The feat was not hard for someone who already was quite petite. Her breath hitched when a third scream reached her ears.

Marion lay still in in her curled up position in what felt like hours. Breathing as slowly and quietly as she could while listening in on her surroundings. Tears fell from her eyes all the while, but she did not allow herself the luxury of crying. The sobs could attract the criminals. Though she knew not if they were what she was to be most worried about.

She lay, dampening her clothes and hair, upon the moss and grass until the sound of a branch snapping made her twitch and her breath caught in her throat. Was it an animal? The criminals? A monster?

"Shh, lass, 'tis just me", Lugh whispered.

Marion snapped up as though a bolt of lightning had hit her. Her head lifting from the moss and her back arching as she scrambled back against the hollowed out tree. The wound on her head protested the movement and she cried out in pain.

Lugh stood by the side of the tree, crossbow over his shoulder and dreads pulled back in a ponytail. He wore the same clothes as this morning, the shirt he wore was moist in sweat, and she wondered had he run all the way there? Or she had accidentally run closer to his house than she'd thought. Marion guessed it was the latter - running with peglegs couldn't be easy.

"Took a nasty fall ay?", Lugh asked and sat down by her side.

He gripped her jaw and moved her head to the side. Inspecting her wound with his free hand while Marion shook. She had finally let herself cry, and did so with loud sobs and wails. Lugh prodded the wound, moving his fingers along her skull with precise motion.

"Aye, ye might 'ave a concussion, a light one, not be left untreated however…", Lugh spoke and removed his hands from her head.

Was he a doctor? Or did he simply know such things? Did this have something to do with his legs? Had he learned of such things when he'd lost them? The questions raced though her head as though they were trying to drown out the other ones - the ones that threatened her whole world?

"I just wanna go home", Marion wailed. She was tired of this place and it's strange people and culture. She wanted her bed. She wanted her Ellen and her Brandt . She wanted her London. She did not want to be here where pirates still existed, where people chased her, or where the maps were strange. "I wanna go home to L-london, to my bed, I want my Ellen".

Lugh sighed, a hushed thing compared to Marion's cries, before he replied to the best of his extent, "I get tha' lassie, I really do, but thin' be, I've never heard 'o that place".

Marion's retort was an angered howl which could have wakened a dead man from his grave, "It's the fucking captital of Britain! It's the largest city in Europe! But no one here seems to know it! It's like it doesn't exist!".

"Could ye be quiet lassie! Were not th' only thin's in tis forest!", Lugh bellowed right back.

Marion became silent, save several random sobs, but still shook a fair amount. Lugh however seemed to listen. For what Marion did not know, nor did she particularly care.

For about a minute Lugh listened on the forest for any signs of life, a branch snapping, leaves crunching, the snarling of an animal, but he did not hear anything. Had daylight still been shining through the tightly packed trees Lugh might have considered looking about as well. The forest was too thick to see through. Lugh sighed, again, and addressed Marion, looking straight into her eyes with a serious glare.

"Look, lassie, thar be no place called any 'o them thin's, 'n I be not speakin' from inexperiance. Bin sailing a lot, 'n I own a lot 'o maps. Thar be no London, no Britin 'n no Urop. Neither in East, West, North or South Blue. I haven't even heard 'o any 'o them places in th' grand line", his expression turned somber, "Wherever ye think ye're from 'tis not here, in 'tis four seas at least".

Marion whimpered. It was mad but there was a sincerity in Lugh's eyes - and could she doubt all the people she'd asked? It was crazy, had she truly died? Was this the afterlife? Or had she stumbled upon a completely different world? Even the thought made her want to hurl. This shattered everything she had ever thought she knew about the world.

"You're lying, you have to be, how could I have ended up here otherwise? This, this -", Marion whimpered.

"I be sorry lass, but no", Lugh condoled.

Marion hiccuped as more tears fell from her eyes.

"Whar did ye get that lass?", Lugh asked suddenly.

Marion looked at the man through a thick layer of wetness. Where had she gotten what? She looked at his eyes, they were fastened on something...beneath her chin? Her throat? Marion glanced down and saw her necklace reflect whatever little light was left in the forest. Her necklace? Except the neck-hole of her t'shirt - which had become muddy - that was the only thing the man could have meant.

"...th-that's", Marion

"Let me spy that", Lugh said and gripped the locket. He turned and twisted it, then opened it. This struck Marion as odd, seeing as it had taken hours for her to simply find the latch the first time she'd opened it.

"Hey! That's m-mine! My mom and dad gave it to me!", she yelled through another hiccup.

Lugh's eyes widened, his brows furrowing - and was that tears gathering in his eyes? He stared intently on the opened locket, his eyes following the tiny text, and then closed the small thing again. His hand let go of the locked and it swung back to it's place at the middle of her chest. The silver felt cool against her skin. Marion quirked a red brow in question. What had just happened? She sniveled.

"Lass...", Lugh's voice sounded pained as he spoke, "do ye ave a sister?".

"...Yes...", Marion mumbled, "why?".

"Oh, by the devils of the sea...", Lugh massages his temple, brows furrowed still, "er moniker might not be _Tereza_?".

Marion's breath caught in her throat, "H-how do you know?".

"Tha seas be damned", Lugh cursed.

The tree's leaves rustled in a wind that blew through the forest. Chilling Marion a tad though she paid it no mind. Lugh knew of Tereza? How was that possible? Marion's gaze was fixated on the man in front of her. He looked panicked - his eyes wide and watering. How did he know of her sister?

"How do you know of her?!", Marion screamed. If it concerned her sister, Marion was damned to let it slide. She let out a growl.

"I knew ye parents, lass", Lugh stated, his pained eyes fixating on her own.

Marion's eyes widened. _What?_

"...", Marion had no words to answer that. How could she? Her parents? They were supposed to be dead, they had left Marion and Tereza on the streets when they'd been four, scared and crying. While she couldn't remember how the two had ended up on the streets of London, Ellen and Brandt constantly said that that was how they had found the sisters. And after many hours, days, of searching through police registers and negotiations Ellen and Brandt had been allowed to adopt the twins. This was what Marion had been told all her life as of yet.

The claim that her parents, her _real_ parents, came from this strange place - a completely different world if she were to believe all she had seen and heard - was absurd. Then again her whole situation was absurd.

"...how?", she whispered.

"...that necklace, that 'n 'tis twin...a bucko 'o mine 'n me made it when ye were two", Lugh started, "ye, yer sister 'n yer mother visited here 'n we gave it to ye as a birthday present...but I'd never thought I'd spy it again".

"Why?", Marion whispered. She couldn't believe it. If he was telling the truth, what did this mean?

"Because ye 'n yer sister died", Lugh said, a tear fell from his right eye, "...or so we thought, it seems...jus before ye a pair turned four, ye ate a devils fruit named the 'wormhole fruit', but ye 'n yer sister was attacked by a island's beast on yer home island - then we ne'er saw ye again...".

"What's that? That fruit?", Marion asked.

She was starting to believe Lugh - however ridiculous the story was. She hiccuped again.

Beside that where had she heard the name 'devils fruit' before?

"A devils fruit...'tis a fruit cursed, it may give ye the ability to do extraordinary things but ye will nay be able th' swim for the rest of yer life, ya'll sink as a rock", Lugh answered with a sigh.

"...I can't swim...", Marion stated, bewildered.

"Ye, I know", Lugh said.

"Then...then...but what if you're wrong?!", Marion shrieked, denial clinging to her like a leaf to a tree in autumn.

"Ye look exactly like yer mother, lass, yer name's th' one she chose, yer sister's name is Tereza, 'n ye have th' necklace I made, ye can't swim 'n ye suddenly turn up without 'splanation - what mo' proof do ye need?", Lugh spoke harshly, "th' 'wormhole fruit' 's supposed ability 's disappearin from one place 'n appearin in another".

Marion's head swam. He was right, Lugh. Everything he was saying was adding up, and without being acquainted with her mother how would he know these things? Marion was about to ask Lugh another question, _then who are my parents?_ When a branch snapped to their left. Lugh's head reeled at the sound. His eyes skimming the dark surroundings. Glaring. Marion stared into the darkness as well - and there was a slight movement. A shadow, big as a boat, moved behind a tree. What followed was the sound of a voice, light and beautiful, singing into the quiet forest.

" _Oh, ho, sailor, won't you come and play?_ ".

The song brought a chill down her spine. Though it had no reason to. The hair upon her back stood on end, and her body stiffened. That was a woman's voice, right? Marion stared at the shadow moving by the trees. It didn't sound like it came from it. Though Marion was unsure. The voice was an echo from every side of the forest. And it made her head hurt more than it already did. Pounding like a raging bull.

Lugh hopped from his position on the ground and drew his crossbow. He swayed on his peglegs, the damn things ruining his balance, and glared at the shadow.

"So the beast has finally come out of hiding...", Lugh spoke. Marion's eyes stared at the peg-legged man in fright.

 _Beast?_

Her eyes started back at the moving shadow, her behind pressed firmly against the hollowed tree, just as it stepped within sight of the duo.

Before them, rising out of the darkness, came a large brown dog, or was it a wolf? It's ears were sharp and pressed back threateningly, fur dirty and unkempt. It was snarling at them, teeth glinting in the gloom, and it's red eyes glared at the two humans with hunger. Marion did a double take. _Red eyes?_ , she thought, _that can't be right_. But even as Marion shut her eyes, forcing them as tight as she could, and opened them again to see if the beast was still there - she was met by large, fully, red eyes. It looked as though the beast was bleeding behind it's irises and whites.

" _Ah, sailor sweet, let me play, I am so bored today, let me taste the skin of your bones and watch you as spray, red, red, red today_ ", the song ended and the beast roared.

Marion whimpered. Her body was too stiff, mind too scared, to move or even let the thought of running into her head. She shook again. Her shoulders twitching like a broken spring. In front of her the beast pounced just as Lugh did, it's jaw wide and taunting with the prospect of death, and Lugh with his crossbow aimed. What did the man think he would be able to do against the beast? Just when the beast's large jaw was about to clamp shut around Lugh's middle however he kicked the beast with his right pegleg just below it's eye. The force of the kick sent the beast flying into a nearby tree. Breaking it in half. Marion gaped.

"Tis be th' end line fer ye damn Crocotta", Lugh growled and landed wobbly by the hollowed tree. He had to grip the bark behind him to steady himself.

The beast snarled again, and with the scream of a woman echoing through the forest, it lunged against Lugh again. Yet it didn't even come an arm's reach close to the man before two bolts, fired in quick succession, pierced it's skull and splattered it's blood upon the forest floor. The beast fell to the ground with a loud crash. It sounded like thunder to Marion's ears.

She couldn't believe it. Lugh, _a_ _peg-legged man_ , had slain a beast as large as a medium sized boat - easily! Marion's eyes shifted from the ginormous unmoving body not far from her own quivering one, to Lugh. He was panting and his hand which did not hold the crossbow was doing something with one of his peg legs. Perhaps adjusting it? She was too stunned to care to be honest. That was both the most exhilarating and the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. Save watching her sister vanish into thin air. Marion let out a breath she did not know she had been holding.

"Ye alright lass?", Lugh spoke and started to walk towards the large body before him. He lightly kicked the head of it when he came close enough, and pulled out one of the bolts from it's head. Then he did the same to the other.

"I...I...w-what was t-that?", Marion whimpered, her shoulders growing slack.

"A Crocotta, mix between lion, wolf 'n a dog, can talk fer some reason 'n likes human meat. No doubt ate them pirates who were chasing ye earlier", he stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. All the while cleaning the two bloodied, and surprisingly not broken, bolts he'd shot to kill the supposed Crocotta.

"I-It ate them...?", Marion paled. That was what the screams had been? And the singing that had been the beast too? That was not possible - though she had been faced with a lot of such things in the last day.

"Yeah, ye didn't 'ave these thins where ye ended up, huh?", Lugh said and wobbled back to her side, pocketing the bolts in the holster attached to the crossbow.

"N-No...I-I've never seen anything like it", Marion replied.

"Well, lass, ye will be seein a lot more o' these kinds o' things if ye want to meet yer mother", Lugh grumbled and reached out his free hand to her. She reluctantly took it and with a helping tug on Lugh's part she managed to stand up.

Until her knees buckled and she fell against the tree trunk again.

"Ah, hahaha", she laughed pathetically, "I can't feel my legs...".

Lugh sighed and gritted out, "Blood loss 'n a light concussion, right be ye, get on me back 'n I'll bring ye back to me hut, 's not far from 'ere".

"B-but your legs...you shouldn't...", Marion moaned.

"Me legs 'ave taken worse than a 60 pound lass", he jeered.

Marion nodded, and when Lugh half crouched, half sat, she climbed onto his back. Swinging her arms around his throat and encircling his waist with her legs. The situation was oddly reminiscent of how Brandt usually carried her to bed. Lugh stood and shifted slightly, readjusting Marion's position, before he headed up the hill she had fallen down. He was careful not to slip upon any of the leaves or the moss.

All the while Lugh walked through the forest, Marion was lost in her own thoughts. The fact that she had family in this...could she call it a world? There was no other word for it in her vocabulary, universe perhaps but it just sounded too not-right. She liked world better. Maybe she could find her family then, as Lugh had thought she might want to do. And maybe that was what happened to Reza eleven months ago? If Lugh was correct, and Marion did have this devils fruit power of disappearing from one place and appearing in another, perhaps that was indeed what had happened to Reza during the crash. Maybe Reza was lost in this world? Perhaps even searching for their parents.

Marion did not think about what could have happened did she run across a beast such as the Crocotta.

"Hey, who are my parents?", Marion then finally asked when she had decided what she wanted to do.

"Yer mother, she be th' Captain Alcippe Kriz, of th' Voltage Pirates", Lugh answered while breathing heavily, a chuckle escaping his throat.

"She's a pirate?", Marion balked, Lugh nodded and his stubble tickled her arms. Perhaps pirates were better in this world. Hadn't Cassis mentioned Lugh being a pirate? And he was kind, if a bit unused to kids. Marion found herself not being too disturbed by the thought of her blood related mother being one. "and my dad?", she asked.

"Pirate too", was Lugh's simple answer.

Marion wanted more than that though.

"And his name is?".

"Lass, yer father was not th' best scurvy dog I've met, yer be better off focusing on yer mother", Lugh growled and she could feel him tense. Had her father done something against Lugh? There was distaste in his words and that did not sit well with Marion.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know", Marion said and pressed her forehead to Lugh's back, "did he do something to you? Or my mother?".

"Ye, he did", Lugh replied.

"I'm sorry", Marion mumbled.

"'S not yer fault, lass, don't be goin around apologizing now, but if ye want to find yer mother, yer most likely gonna find im on th' way", Lugh spoke and readjusted Marion again.

The forest had become slightly less dense since Lugh had started his trek. A small amount of light, even if it was only moon and star light, forcing itself through the crowns of the trees as well as the space between the trees. They were nearing the end of the forest.

"You're still not gonna tell me his name, huh?", Marion muttered.

"Sorry, lass", Lugh laughed.

Marion pouted. Even if her father was a bad man she wanted to know at least his name - at most what he looked like, what he liked to eat, how old he was and how much he missed her and Reza. She wanted to know these things about her mother too but she had the feeling Lugh would be more accommodating with that topic. _Besides_ , Marion thought, _our dad can't be too bad if me and Reza turned out okay._

"Do you think Reza's here too?", Marion finally asked Lugh after a long time of contemplation.

"Probably, I'd say", Lugh grunted and climbed over a rock, "Did ye use yer powers with 'er last ye saw 'er?".

"I think so...", Marion mumbled.

"Than I'd guess so".

Marion yawned, her eyelids were starting to become heavy, and she could feel sleep crawling up upon her. But she didn't want to sleep just yet. She still had so many questions to ask Lugh. About this world and her family, and especially about these 'devil fruits'.

"Hey, Lugh, I wanna find them all, my family...", Marion mumbled before she fell asleep on the former pirate's back.

* * *

 **A/N: So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Review and tell me! :)**

 **Next time we'll be skipping seven years to when Marion is eighteen, (the chapter you just read takes place a few days before her birthday which is why she is still ten), and a certain Straw hat wearing pirate will be visiting the small island.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, so, I was supposed to upload this chapter last Friday, but due to my sister having her birthday I had to postpone it, sorry about that. As of now I'm going to try uploading at least every second week - if I can't manage the chapter within a week.**

 **I forgot to mention in the last chapter also that I'm going to name the devils fruits not by a double name like "gomu gomu", but simply just "the rubber fruit" because it translates better into English and it was practically impossible to name Marion's fruit something with a double name, even had I used Japanese for that.**

 **Now a huge Thank You! to all those who have followed and favorited this story, even if it as of yet only has three chapters (four with this one), and a special call out to "TheSuperMario" and "ADDBaby" for reviewing!**

 **(an apology also goes to "TheSuperMario" as I forgot to mention his/hers review in the last chapter, I had already written that one before seeing the review and stupid me forgot to edit it in)**

 **Now without further ado, here's the third chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything canon to the One Piece universe, neiter the story nor the characters. I only own that which is not canon.**

 **Chapter 3**

 **The Bar, the Bird and the Pirate**

* * *

 _Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.- Thomas Hardy_

* * *

 _7 years later_

A small boat, weather worn but surviving, docked at the harbour of Monmouth a rainy Thursday afternoon. The weather had been stormy for a good two days, and for such a small boat - it was barely that, a dinghy with sails perhaps - to have endured the seas while the waves climbed to the heights of mountains, it was a wonder the two sailors in ownership of the thing had lasted long enough to find the small island, much more keeping the boat floating. While most of the town was in hiding of the awful weather, cosying up in their homes, or in their room at the very popular ' _Sea Kings Mouth_ ' inn on top of the hill overlooking the small town, those that dared venture outside - and were also close enough to the harbour - looked flabbergasted on as the small boat nearly crashed into the pier as it docked. One of the unfortunate sailors, a teen with a straw hat on top of his head and far too light clothes for such a weather, having had just enough momentum to halter the impending collision and quickly bind the boat to the landing. Right in the middle of two larger caravels with threatening exterior and pirate flags hoisted high.

The Straw Hat wearing sailor then smiled, apparently not disgruntled by the weather at all, and watched his pink haired companion climb onto the harbour as well. This one, understandably, upon shaky legs and eyes darting about like a cornered animal. The pink haired sailor wore, slipping upon his nose, a pair of wet, round glasses - which he desperately tried to wipe clean of the constantly attacking raindrops.

The straw hat wearing sailor was named Monkey D. Luffy, a recently self-proclaimed Pirate Captain in search of a crew. Of seventeen years, though he acted younger than that, he had just a week since started his journey upon the sea. And since then he had fought a sea monster, survived a whirlpool and just two days ago he beat up a Pirate crew calling themselves the 'Alvida Pirates. This happened upon a small island just after surviving the previously mentioned whirlpool, and thereby he had also rescued his current companion, Coby, from the tyrannous Captain Alvida. He'd been the poor cabin boy aboard the pink ship.

But not even hours after the duo had set out from the small island - they'd been 'given' a boat, dinghy, by the pirates who were left of the Alvida Pirates - the two companions had discovered that neither could navigate.

Thus Monkey D. Luffy and Coby the cabin boy, had drifted on for two days, wherever the waves took them. And that had landed them on Gar's island with little money and lesser food. An unfortunate situation with even more unfortunate circumstances.

"A town! There's bound to be some meat here Coby!", Luffy said and stared at the depressing town in front of him. The weather had done a good deal of harm to the area, throwing off rooftop tiles and flooding the two streets the town consisted of until they looked like muddy rivers. But the brightly colored windows, which every house seemed to have, with their inviting lights shining from the indoors beyond them warmed the area like no sunny weather could.

Luffy re-checked the ropes binding their dinghy to the pier before he started of from the harbour and into the town. Coby following him nervously.

Before the two exited the harbour, in fact, right by it's exit, a large sign crafted in wood, welcoming any visitor to Gar's island, Monmouth, rose before them like a note of warning. A chill of excitement ran up Luffy's back, and he grinned as he read the line; _Pirates Town_ , hastily scratched onto it.

Coby screeched and grabbed onto Luffy's red vest, tugging at it harshly.

"L-L-Luffy! I know which island this is!", he yelled, his eyes were wide in panic.

Luffy laughed and pointed towards the sign, "Yeah, It's Gar's island, an island of pirates".

Coby tugged on Luffy's vest again, "Yes! And it's very bad! We can't be here!".

"Why?", Luffy pouted and swatted Coby's tugging hand away.

"Because!", Coby yelled, "This is the only real pirate island in the East Blue! All sorts of pirates come here! Beside that it is said demons live here!".

Luffy stared down at his friend, then out over the town. _Demons, huh?_ , he thought. A wide grin stretched upon his lips. It sounded just perfect.

"Hahaha! Sounds good!", Luffy laughed.

"No, it doesn't!", Coby cried miserably.

The straw hat wearing teen chuckled and exited the harbour, walking past the sign with a last look before treading into the mud. His reluctant friend tottering after him. The street he'd chosen to wade through was dark save the little light which came from the houses, and a few lanterns hanging along the roofs. Some of said lanterns had fallen down into the mud and washed away in the storm. It was a homey little town, which reminded him of his own, and Luffy was sure it would be quite lively had the storm not been assaulting the island at the time. As it was only two people, both clad in heavy rain gear, were walking along the street like him and Coby. Shivering in the cold winds.

Scratch that, there was a third.

Luffy and Coby stopped in surprise at the sight, about half way through the street.

Running down the road, near slipping on the mud, was a man in a bloodied t-shirt and jeans. He had no shoes on and was bleeding from his feet - most likely due to the fact. The man had a jolly roger printed onto his t-shirt - one neither Luffy nor Coby recognized from any wanted poster or the like. And his eyes were wide with fright, like he was chased by something of nightmares.

"She-Devil!", the man cried, and ran past the two newly arrived, not even sparing them a glance.

Luffy looked after the man as he ran, slipping and falling into the mud once but immediately getting up again, down to the harbor. He climbed on board one of the larger caravels docked beside Luffy and Coby's Dinghy, and then Luffy lost sight of him.

Luffy tilted his straw hat and looked in the direction the man had run from. Up the hill overlooking the town and to the slightly ajar entrance door leading into the inn. It was quite the large building, two stories tall and as wide as three regular houses. A part of it looked recently renovated too - but it was hard to tell in the storm. Luffy hummed.

"I wanna go there", he said and pointed toward the inn.

"B-But that's where h-he came from!", Coby squealed - but his friend was already off. Coby followed reluctantly.

Luffy walked with determined steps up the hill, following a trampled up path which lead to the front door and porch. With something of a half laugh he then threw the ajar door open - and was met with a boring brown hallway with not enough room for even ten people. The elongated room was quiet save the howling wind from outside. And so sign of a struggle. At end of the hallway there was a frosty glass door.

Luffy and Coby entered the hallway, the first with a sullen expression and the other with a relieved one, and shook off whatever rainwater they could get out of their clothes. The water formed a little puddle on the wooden floor. Coby then firmly shut the front door, vanquishing whatever stormy wind had blown into the hallway, and muffling it's howls.

"Aw, man, I thought there was a fight going on here", Luffy sulked.

The smaller boy beside him sighed in exasperation.

"Luffy, you shouldn't go around searching for fights like that, it's dangerous!", Coby said. He looked up at his friend, who was stomping his sandal clad feet on the floor - trying to get the dirt off. Monkey D. Luffy was truly a curious person. Not many specifically sought out fights.

"I just wanted to see if there was a person here who could join my crew", Luffy pouted, "if there's no fight how am I supposed to know if -"

But Luffy couldn't end his sentence before a body smashed through the glass door in front of them and an outraged cry drowned out even the howling wind outside. The body landed an arms length from Luffy's feet, unconscious.

"Oh, so there is a fight", Luffy laughed and walked toward the unconscious, and bloodied body before them.

The body was that of a middle aged man, a man with a short beard and a fat belly, and he was beaten to the brink of death. Bruises covered every part of his skin - that which you could see - and he was bleeding from his mouth. Someone had done a good deal of damage to him.

While Coby was gaping at the unconscious body, Luffy stepped past it and opened the broken door with an effortless push.

The glass door lead to what could be called a restaurant and bar area, a quadratic room with its walls decorated by wanted posters and different kinds of weapons, but it was badly lit. A single lamp hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room, swinging from side to side, was the only noticeable light. At the other side of the room there was a long stretching bar, stocked with whatever liquor one could think of, and otherwise the room was simply filled with neatly placed tables and chairs of wood.

Or at least the ones that had been fortunate enough to not be placed in the middle of the room. There nearly every single one of the tables and chairs had been broken, smashed and otherwise destroyed - and in the middle of that mess, surrounded by a heap of unconscious bodies, stood a lone figure with a bleeding nose and her left hand around a skinny man's throat.

The woman standing in the middle of the room, with the swinging lamp right above her head, had her red hair pulled back in a ponytail, a bit tangled, and her skin tanned to a bronze color. The clothes she wore, a black tank-top and green cargo pants, had splatters of blood upon them. She had a lean body, strong legs and arms, and her eyes, as blue as the ocean, were glaring hotly at the skinny man. All the while her lungs heaved out breath after breath as though she'd been running a marathon.

"Y-You bitch!", the skinny man the woman held by the throat grunted. He coughed up some blood which ran down his chin and onto his beard.

The woman sneered.

"You're calling _me_ that? Whose crew was it that caused such a ruckus in here, huh? Who's crew groped me, and threatened - by knife point I might add - the innkeeper who let your sorry asses stay the night?", the woman tightened her grip around the man's throat, the muscles in her left arm twitching, "Who is the real fucking bitch here, huh? Out of us two who has the bigger balls?".

The skinny man groaned, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, and with a final squeeze from the red headed woman he lost consciousness as well. The woman let the man's throat go and he fell in a heap onto the floor. Joining his passed out crewmates.

"You can't even back up your bark…", the woman muttered and turned to the bar, stalking with hunched shoulders to the counter before flopping down upon one of the empty barstools in front of it. Then she sighed. A long and heavy exhale of frustration.

Onlookers of the scene, those sitting by the tables or the bar, were silent.

Luffy whistled, but not loud enough for anyone but him and Coby to hear. Judging by heap of, he guessed, pirates on the floor in the middle of the room, and by the woman being seemingly the only one bloodied by the fight - she had just single handedly taken out at least fifteen pirates. With minor injuries to boot. She was strong.

Coby, who had walked through the glass door only seconds after Luffy, stood shaking in his boots at the sight of the scene. No doubt wanting to run from the whole building like his feet were on fire. But Luffy wanted the opposite, and with a large grin upon his face he walked towards the bar as well. Passing a couple of stunned guests, and a smirking chef on the way.

Coby followed him nervously. Like usual.

By the bar the red headed woman sat talking with the barkeep, a tall woman with curly black hair and a cigarette between her lips. She had been handed a rag which she was using to clean her hands of blood and a glass of water stood by her side. The red head sat with her legs crossed and a sneer upon her face. Still.

"Seriously pup, that's the third array of tables I'm going to have to change this year", the barkeep remarked snidely but still with a smile plastered upon her lips. She exhaled a cloud of smoke and glanced at the heap of unconscious bodies.

"Well, try to make them pirates pay, 's not my fault they decided to be drunk buffoons the day I was barmaid", the red headed woman muttered, trying, but failing, to scrub a drop of blood from her pants, "Besides I couldn't just let them threaten you, what if they'd made good on their promise? Then I would have lost my dear auntie".

The barkeep huffed, "I could have handled it, pup".

The redhead snickered, "Yeah, you could, but it would have taken longer - cause I'm stronger".

"Well, then you can use your strength - oh mighty one - to clean up a bit here", the barkeep said and pointed to the heap of unconscious pirates, "take out the trash".

The redhead grunted, an exhausted sound, and stood from the barstool.

"Fine", she sighed and turned her back on the barkeep, searching with her eyes for something, or someone in the room. When she found him, the smirking chef Luffy had just walked past, who was about to head inside a door by one of the corners in the room, she called out, "Hey Arima! Make me a stir fry for when I get back!".

The chef laughed and asked, "Without corn?".

"You know me better than your girlfriend does", the redhead teased and walked over to the first pair of unconscious pirates. She grabbed them both by their collars and started to drag them, none so kindly, towards the glass door and out to the hallway.

Luffy sat himself down upon the empty bar chair beside the one the redhead had just used. Thoughts in a dilemma. His eyes followed the woman until she disappeared into the hallway, and then he turned to the barkeep.

"Hey, you have any good food here?", he asked as Coby, still nervous, sat himself down beside him.

"Um...me too, but we don't have too much money….can we get something cheap?", Coby asked timidly.

The barkeep, who had been staring at the redhead also, turned and smiled at the two, and said, "Sure, something sweet or something sour? You stayin' for the night also? Running from the storm like so many others?".

"I want something of both, lady", Luffy grinned, "And I guess a room or two. We got lost".

The barkeeper's smile widened, and she mashed her cigarette in the ashtray placed on the counter in front of her.

"I'll take something spicy? If you have that, that is…", Coby said.

The barkeep nodded and walked to the door behind her, labeled with kitchen. She opened it and yelled their order to the chefs working there - the noise from the kitchen flooded the room when she'd opened the door, as did a delicious smell that had Luffy's mouth watering. The woman then returned to her position by the counter and took out two glasses, filling them with water.

"Water's always best when you've just gotten out of the sea", she explained and handed the two glasses to them, "and I apologize for the mess here, it doesn't happen _that_ often, but once in awhile some drunk pirates will try to trash the place, unfortunately that is what happens when you run an inn in a town dubbed as a resort for pirates".

Luffy nodded and drank his glass in a single gulp. Coby on the other hand only stared into the glass, watching the ripples in the water.

The noise all around the room soon started to pick up, as the still quite dumbfounded guests went back to their plates of food and conversations. Though some started to whisper ambiguously.

Luffy and Coby's food arrived only within moments - the kitchen worked quickly -, delivered by the same chef who had talked to the redhead before, Arima? And Luffy wasted no time digging into the food. It tasted divine - and soon he asked for seconds. Then thirds. And fourths.

Coby had barely finished his first plate upon Luffy's fifth.

While the two newly arrived in town ate, the redhead who had caused the scene worked with dragging all the unconscious bodies outside. Her shuffling was the loudest noise, save Luffy's enthusiastic eating, in the room. She heaved one pair of pirates out after the other but once that was done with she did not return. At least not immediately.

And Luffy took that moment to ask the barkeep; "So who was she?".

"Huh?", the barkeep looked up from the glass she had been cleaning with a rug, "Oh, the pup?".

Luffy nodded and stuffed a spoonful of stir fry into his mouth.

"She's Rion Kriz, this town's own little hero", the barkeep smiled and put down the cleaned glass. Only to bring out another one, a dirty one, from beneath the counter and start to scrub that one as well.

Coby let out a frightened gasp, "Then she's one of the supposed demons from this town?!".

The barkeep slammed the now clean glass down upon the counter and glared at the pink haired boy. He squeaked and stared down into his half drunken glass. The woman then brought out yet another dirty glass from beneath the counter and began scrubbing.

"That awful nickname was given to her by a pig of a Marine", she said with a scowl, "he came here looking for trouble and she beat his ass for trying to rob the bakery down the street - in the name of justice, ha!".

The woman slammed down the third glass upon the counter and crossed her arms.

"So she's a good person then?", Luffy laughed and finished his sixth plate, "hey, can I have one more?".

"Don't you think you've had enough boy? How big is that stomach of yours?", the barkeep quirked a black eyebrow.

She took out a pack of cigarettes from her jeans pockets but called to the kitchen after another plate still. Lighting one of the cigarettes by the candle on top of a liquor cabinet behind the bar she then put the stick of death to her lips and re-crossed her arms.

"But, yeah, she's good, sometimes too good though", the woman exhaled a puff of smoke and looked to the ceiling, "beating that marine a year back earned her that awful nickname after all, she-devil...".

"huh...", Luffy hummed, and grinned as another cook exited the kitchen door and brought him his seventh plate - shrimps and potatoes -, "You think she'll join my crew?".

The barkeep snapped her gaze to the teen, "What?".

Coby shrieked beside Luffy.

"Luffy you can't be considering! You can't just ask that!", the pink haired boy exclaimed.

"Hehe, she seems strong so I think I'll ask her", Luffy laughed and stuffed a whole potato into his mouth.

"Heh, you a pirate too boy?", the barkeep asked, a smirk upon her lips.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates", Luffy happily exclaimed, and the room was silenced - again.

The barkeep stared at Luffy with her jaw slack, and her cigarette fell from her mouth. Every other guest stared at the teen also. Every one except Coby, who had a small smile upon his lips, and his gaze fixated on his plate. That statement was one he had heard before from his companion. And Luffy was anything but joking.

Then the barkeep started out laughing - the whole room following soon after. She laughed so much she had to hold on to her side in the fear of cramps, and only once the front door slammed open again and the redhead - Rion - walked into the room did she stop. With her body bent forward and her left hand holding onto the counter as though she risked falling. But even then her shoulders shook out of mirth.

Luffy was pouting.

* * *

#

* * *

Marion, now officially dubbed Rion by the towns folk of Monmouth, walked into the ' _Sea Kings Mouth_ 's restaurant and reception after having hauled all the assailants of this evening down to the harbour. The rain had drenched her clothes and hair as well as her already foul mood, and her nose hurt. Damn Captain had managed to get a hit in on her. She was prepared to meet questioning stares and frowns once she walked past the glass door - like usual whenever she had to beat someone up for being a dirtbag, or as in this case several dirtbags.

Yet, what she heard even from the hallway, her steps crunching as she walked with her combat boots on top of the smashed glass of the broken door leading to her destination, was loud and unmistakable laughter.

 _Strange_ , she thought and by an effortless push with her shoulder - her hands were busy trying to warm up in the confinements of her pant's pockets, though with little avail - opened the not-so-whole-anymore glass door.

It was as though the whole room shook with glee. Left and right guests at the inn howled in joy, not concerned at all by the smashed tables and blood on the floor - at least not at the moment. They were bent over cracking-up, and surprisingly enough Cassis had joined them. The famed barkeep who usually had a quite skewed sense of humor stood bent over cackling. That must have been quite the joke she had missed while 'taking out the trash'.

Marion whistled, loudly, and quirked a red eyebrow.

"That must have been the joke of a century I missed", she teased - and immediately some of the guests quieted down.

It seemed her fight would drive away yet another array of we-might-have-come-back customers.

Marion scowled.

Cassis snickered, she had tears in her eyes - imagine that -, and stomped on something on the ground before uttering a half-assed; "Sorry".

Marion wrung the water out of her hair, removing the elastic band keeping it in place, and began to move towards her usual chair by the bar. With her reappearance the room soon quieted down to a normal level. The quests whispering and talking among themselves, with the occasional clatter of cutlery when they ate. On the two chairs to the right of her own, Marion noticed just as she was about to sit down, were two guests she had not seen before the fight had broken up. Had they gotten there during the fight or after? Marion let out a humming sound and re-tied her hair into a wet ponytail.

Flopping down upon the favorite barstool Marion then addressed Cassis - who was still smiling as though she was about to break into a fit of laughter again.

"So, what exactly did I miss?".

Cassis let out a snicker, "Well, seems like we have a candidate for the throne of Pirates here".

The older woman pointed her thumb to the guest sitting beside Marion. He was wearing a straw hat - it was the most noticeable thing about the guy -, had a damp red vest and a pair of jeans shorts, and his skin was lightly tanned. The short, spiky hair beneath the straw hat was black, and underneath his dark eyes, the left one, he had a scar. At the moment the guy was stuffing his mouth with food, and judging by the pile of plates beside him it was his seventh serving.

Marion couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen him somewhere before however, and it bugged her.

Beside the straw hat wearing teen - because he couldn't be more than twenty years old - sat a short boy with pink hair and round glasses with blue frames. He wore what could be called sailors clothes, a white, short armed shirt with blue stripes along the shoulders and black pants. This one was eating his, single, serving much slower than his...companion? Marion did not even know if they were acquainted but seeing as they sat together, there was an empty chair beside the pink haired one, she guessed they were.

"Huh, so you wanna be the king of the pirates, straw hat?", Marion asked with a smirk upon her lips. Now at least she understood what the whole restaurant had been laughing at, though she did not agree with their reaction to the teen's ambition. Mocking someone's dream was something Marion condoned, ever since she had taken up one that was nearly impossible herself seven years ago.

The straw hat wearing teen looked at her and nodded, then he stuffed a spoonful of shrimps into his mouth.

"Hm", Marion hummed, "then good luck with that".

"You're so boring, pup", Cassis sighed, and filled a glass of whiskey for Marion. The innkeeper knew what the redhead wanted after a fight; tipsyness and good food in her stomach. She handed the drink to Marion and headed into the kitchen to get her special stir fry - without corns.

"Thanks!", the teen stuffing his mouth smiled at Marion with hamster cheeks.

Marion couldn't help the snicker that escaped her throat.

"Hey, you're strong, right? You wanna join my crew?", the teen asked when he had swallowed the food in his mouth.

Marion smiled but shook her head, "Sorry, but I won't be joining any pirate crew anytime soon".

The pink haired boy let out a sigh just as Cassis opened the door to the kitchen, and with Marion's serving in hand strolled to the bar counter again. Still with an amused expression upon her face. Cassis placed the plate and a pair of utensils in front of the younger woman, then sat down with crossed legs upon her own barstool. The one Arima had placed behind the counter for when the owner became tired. It happened far too often as of late, and Marion had an inclination to believe that it had something to do with her smoking habits. Cassis was worse than Lugh.

Marion looked skeptically at Cassis, before soon digging into her meal.

"Aw, but it'll be fun!", the straw hat wearing teen said once he had swallowed the last bite of his seventh serving, and pushed the plate to the side, "you seem like a good person so why not?".

Marion quirked an eyebrow. Seemed like a good person? That was not something she often heard from strangers nowadays - and Marion blamed that one on Lugh. Had the old man's intense training not been so harsh, they could have thrown her into a military camp and it would have been mercy, she might not have grown up to be so...temperamental towards unwarranted violence. It was not her fault idiot pirates turned up right and left in Monmouth. They were like moths to a light.

 _Ah, that reminds me, I have a training session with the old man tomorrow...should get to bed early today then_ , Marion thought and brought a spoonful of rice and chicken to her mouth. It tasted just as fantastic as it had seven years ago.

"Luffy, if she doesn't want to join you can't force her", the pink haired boy said to his friend - and shot a nervous look at Marion.

At least he was in tune with the rest of the guests at the inn.

Marion swallowed her bite and addressed the straw hat wearing teen again - Luffy was it? -, "What part of me, and what you saw me do to those no-name pirates, shouts 'here's a good person', to you?".

Cassis chuckled.

"Just got a feeling", Luffy grinned, "and you beat up a marine before - so you're practically a pirate already!".

Marion sent a half serious glare at Cassis, the woman really had to stop telling customers her life story.

"Cassie", Marion whined.

"What? That marine was a dick, but it's a good story! Besides you want to go to the Grandline already", Cassis voice took on a mocking undertone, again barely containing her laughter, "why not go on the future pirate King's ship?".

Marion growled. The teen beside her perking up at the mention of the Grandline, and his companion stilled the fork on the way to his mouth. The older of the two women grinned and let out a light chuckle while the other grabbed her glass of whiskey.

"You wanna go to the Grandline? That's perfect!", Luffy laughed.

His companion on the other hand went pale in panic and exclaimed, "You want to go to the Pirates Graveyard?! But that's suicide!".

Marion sighed and looked at the two new arrivals with a bored expression. She took a gulp from her whiskey, before muttering, "I'm going to the Grandline, yes, but it's far too soon for that, I'll be dead before the first day ends if I go as I am now".

"Huh, how do you know?", Luffy asked.

"My...uncle is from the Grandline...", Marion grunted and took another gulp of the whiskey.

"Eeeh! That's so cool!", Luffy exclaimed with a wide grin and wonder gleaming in his eyes.

The pink haired boy gasped, and looked quite horrified in contrast. Companions though they were, it seemed they were not alike at all. Marion wondered briefly how that worked out on their ship, but perhaps their differences mattered little with the balance of the rest of the crew. Wherever those people were.

"'S nothing special, he was born in the Grandline, traveled around a bit, and settled down here in East Blue when he was tired of it all", Marion said and stared into her glass with solemn eyes. Lugh had told her most of what he'd done in the Grandline with his crew and her mother. Explored here, fought there, and then when her mother had met her father. But Lugh always refused to tell further than that, and he still wouldn't budge about her fathers name. Even after seven years.

Marion frowned. She had been trying to figure out who her father was through old newspapers and recent history books, but of course had found nothing. Just a list of some of the wanted pirates during Captain Alcippe's time, and that list was useless in the matter of finding out who she had married (if they had) and who she'd had children with. Not that Marion thought that the world government would keep track of who had children with who - unless they were important enough.

Though then again the world government had done some crazy things throughout history.

"Oh! Can I meet him? Is he here?", Luffy exclaimed happily and looked around as though Lugh would suddenly waltz through the door and start telling stories.

Hah! That would be a sight.

The old man was more likely to swear an oath to the marines than do that.

"He can't just come waltzing through the door kid", Cassis said as though she'd read Marion's mind, "got two peg legs that one, and a grumpy demeanor to boot, though not around that one".

Cassis pointed a thumb at Marion's scowling face and grinned. Luffy pouted.

"He's got _two_ peglegs!?", the pink haired companion asked, his jaw slack.

"Yeah, lost it in a marine raid - I think", Marion said thoughtfully, "hasn't really told me the details on that one...".

"Well, at least he tells you something", Cassis grunted, "before you washed up on the island he barely even came to town - I was the only one who ever even spoke to him".

"Yeah, now he knows the bakers name, and what he does, isn't that fantastic?", Marion laughed and drank the last of her whiskey. That had been just what she needed. The liquor burned comfortably in her throat, and she longed for more. But getting drunk was not one of her goals this evening - and she'd rather leave it at that.

"Hey, hey! Introduce me! I wanna meet the uncle!", Luffy exclaimed and stared expectantly at Marion, who smiled, half amused.

"Well", Marion chuckled and pushed her plate away, she was full and ready to head home - to the old man's creaky house -, "maybe if you're still here tomorrow, and he isn't too tired to head into town himself, then I might".

She huffed and looked to the clock above the kitchen door. It was getting pretty late - at least as far as a day before training went - and she still had to buy bread for breakfast tomorrow. Lucky the bakery had open long into the night. She stood from the barstool and stretched her arms.

"It was nice meeting you, candidate for the throne, pink haired one, but I gotta get going", Marion smiled and jokingly saluted Cassis, then shooting an amused smile at the two guests. She was met with a pout and a very uncertain nod and smile.

Marion turned and with a proper smile on her own, strolled out of the inn. At least there had been some decent guests at the inn today, if not a bit eccentric. She wondered - as she stepped into the rain again - if they would actually stay til tomorrow. Maybe meeting such a strange youth would be good for the old man.

* * *

#

* * *

Opening the front door to Lugh and Marion's now shared cliff side house, (the door still a stable door even after Marion's constant insistence on getting it replaced), with a bag from the bakery under her left arm and the full moon shining bright upon her back, Marion was met with the smell of cigarette smoke and the sight of a passed out Lugh lounging in his favorite armchair in the middle of the living and dining area. The lights were out but Lugh had started a warming fire in the fireplace in front of him, and that brought enough light into the two room house to see. Marion locked the door behind her and put the key back into it's place in her pants pocket. The key clinked once it fell on top of the beli coins she also had in the same pocket. She flinched at the sound. The house had just been as quiet as a graveyard.

Marion put the bag from the bakery on top of the small drawer on the left side of the door and took of her combat boots. She placed them neatly beside a hanger, on the right side of the door, where her and Lugh's jackets and other outdoor trinkets hang. She briefly eyed the special hook a bit to the left of the hanger, where Lugh's crossbow hang. Her mother had apparently made the thing. Modified it and making it possibly even more effective than a gun. That first day when she had seen both Lugh and the crossbow in action for the first time, killing the beast who would no doubt have eaten her had Lugh not arrived in time, she had been unnerved by the thing. As it was now, Lugh had allowed Marion to wield it a couple of times, she was astounded by the efficiency of it - as well as how easily it was handled.

The more she heard about her mother, and this world, the more Marion wanted to meet her.

Marion shook herself and waded into the small living area where Lugh had fitted both a living-room, kitchen, dining-room and beds, letting the warmth of the fireplace heat her skin. The storm raging outside had once again drenched her clothes, hair and skin. It was becoming very uncomfortable with the clothes sticking - cold - to her skin. And while she waded over to the sleeping older man she could hear the water dripping from her with every step.

"Hey, Lugh, wake up", she whispered into the silent room when she reached the armchair. It looked very comfortable sitting spread out in the thing. Though the cigarette sticking out between his chapped lips could not be very healthy.

And he was supposed to be a doctor.

Marion removed the cigarette and mashed it in the ash tray on the small glass, coffee table beside the armchair, and crouched by Lugh's side. Before she began to shake him awake, Marion removed the newspaper in his lap and threw it to the fire. It didn't quite make the jump and instead landed just in front of the fireplace, upon the wooden floor where a small pile of ash had started to form.

"Lugh, if you're gonna sleep, do in your bed", Marion said and shook the older man. He stirred and let out an agitated snort before seemingly falling asleep again.

"C'mon old man...", Marion grunted and shook him again. This time the shake woke the man perfectly.

"Ugh...", Lugh let out a cough, "Lass? Be it late already?".

Marion let out a snort. That depended on your definition of late. Sometimes the man was awake way into early morning and still wouldn't call it late.

"It's nine, and you fell asleep in your chair, again. You should sleep in your bed if you're tired, not occupy the armchair and wake up with a stiff back", Marion said and pointed a thumb to his legs, "you know what it does to your balance on your legs in the morning".

"Damn lass. I be knowin' already", Lugh rubbed his temple, "What made ye so late?".

Marion hummed. She was usually at home around eight, since she usually had to wake around half past five in the mornings. Tomorrow would be a pain in the ass due to her delay.

She cursed the damned pirates again.

"There was a no-name pirate crew causing some trouble at the inn, I had to drive them out", Marion huffed and gazed into the fire, "then I met a rather interesting person, a pirate, at the inn after the fight and I got distracted".

Lugh snorted, "How big was the crew this time? Couldn't you have left it to Cassis?".

"They were around fifteen, but most of them barely knew how to handle a gun, much less how to shoot straight, they shot up some of the lamps at the inn so they're gonna have to get changed...and yeah...I guess Cassis could have handled it".

"Yer bored lass, maybe ye really should get goin' soon", Lugh said stumbled to his feet. The bones in his body did creak like an old house when he stretched. Marion grunted at the sound.

"Ha! That's a funny coincidence, just got a request from another novice pirate, an interesting one though, about joining his crew", Marion walked to the fireplace and sat down in front of it with a smile forming on her lips, "but what's the sudden change in opinion? Yesterday you yelled at me for even thinking that I could survive in the Grandline".

Marion moved her gaze from the fire and turned her head to look at the older man, who had a thoughtful expression. His lips were curved down in a frown and his eyebows were furrowed. His hair was beginning to grow a bit of gray hair, Marion noticed in the dim light.

"I might have a lead on yer family, lass", Lugh spoke slowly, cautiously as though he were waiting for a beast to pounce on him as he spoke the words. Marion stilled and stared at the older man.

"But I'll be talking wit ye 'bout it tomorrow, at breakfast in th' inn", he said and Marion glared.

"Why? Why can't you tell me now?", Marion hissed like a snake.

"I be needin' th' check somethin' wit' tomorrow's newspaper th' be sure lass. If bin gotten tis' wrong then thar's nothin' to it", Lugh growled, "So stop lookin' at me like a kid who's lost 'er candy".

Marion grumbled under her breath and turned her head back to the direction of the fire. Her eyes glared into the flames, then down at the newspaper at her feet. She heard Lugh stumble across the room and towards the bathroom. When she heard the creaky old door close she snatched the newspaper off the floor and let the ashes stuck to it fall into her lap as she opened the first page.

There was an array of small articles on the first page, the second and the third. All somehow involving pirate raids or arrests by the marines, but nothing that caught her eye. Nothing that screamed 'here is the thing about your parents'. The pages four five and six were dedicated to the economy and a raid by one of the Yonko. But again nothing caught her eye. Pages seven, eight and ten were just adverts by several of the different mayor companies in east Blue and all around the world. Marion quickly turned the pages of those - she despised adverts. Then came page eleven and twelve, and though the article did get her attention, she couldn't see what any of it would ever had to to with her family. The article was about an attack on one of the slave auctions at the Sabaody Archipelago, 23 slaves had escaped and the attacker had managed to flee the marines. Though they had gotten a good look at the perpetrator. Apparently the government was now discussing giving him or her a bounty.

Marion found herself dubbing this person a hero instead of a villain.

Though the world government apparently condemned the business of slavery, publicly, they had nothing against so-called 'Pet Auctions'. Lugh had told her what those Auctions actually sold, he had witnessed one himself - and Sabaody was one of the major hubs of this business. The article of course named the slave auctions 'Pet auctions' instead of it's proper term. Had the author written anything else he or she could have been deemed a criminal.

The slaves the article had dubbed 'animals and beasts'.

Marion snorted. The whole world government was fucked in this world. Of what she could remember of the place she had lived in for five years of her life, actions like these, the ones the world government constantly pulled that were unjustified and pure criminal, they would have been bedeviled in that place.

A feeling of guilt and disgust welled up in Marion's stomach. Rising like a beast starved. Brandt and Ellen, how were they? Seven years had passed in this world without her even finding any way to even contact them. Her devil fruit powers she rarely managed to access, and rarer still did they properly work. It frustrated both her and Lugh.

In a fit of anger, at herself and at her useless devil fruit, Marion threw the newspaper properly into the fireplace. It burned to a crisp within moments. Other than fighting, and learning about this world, Marion felt she had done next to nothing during the seven years she'd stayed at Monmouth. She had seen nothing of her family, had heard nothing at all about her sister and not learned shit about her devil fruit. It was frustrating her to the point where she took out her anger and misery on every no-name pirate she could get her hands on - and even Lugh, who while being a doctor was useless when it came to psychology, knew it was not healthy.

Maybe that was why he had possibly given her false hope.

Lugh exited the bathroom with a heavy sigh that filled the thick silence like a scream in a crowd, and then waded over to the bunk bed in the right corner of the room.

"Ay, lass, we'll find somethin' on 'em eventually", Lugh said before he climbed into the lower bed and dragged the covers over his head.

Marion sat in front of the fire an hour still before she decided to get up and head into the bathroom to get ready for the night.

* * *

#

* * *

The walk to the ' _Sea Kings Mouth_ ' in the morning was one of the harshest Marion had experienced in a long while. While the storm had finally calmed down, and the sun even managed to force itself between the grey clouds once in a while, the winds didn't even blow as harshly as usual, the overall tension between her and Lugh felt like lightning had struck between them. It was not a hostile tension so much as it was uncomfortable. But it was still the most animus the two had been against each other in at least three years. Last time had been when Marion nearly left the island in frustration - but been saved by Lugh when a sea monster had attacked the small boat she'd stolen.

Due to the cold air of the early morning, Marion had donned an over-sized hoodie, black in color, and a pair of grey leggigns along with her usual dark green combat boots - they were perfect for traversing through wet grass and moss. Lugh had only pulled on a large raincoat over his pyjamas and looked quite odd in contrast to the surroundings.

When the pair finally reached the inn's newly replaced front door - the last one had gotten stuck and some of the cooks had been forced to break it down a year ago - Marion opened the thing in haste. Nearly swinging it out of it's hinges. She received a glare from Lugh for that.

She closed the door then with care, and the two walked, with tense shoulders and frowns upon their lips, into the reception and restaurant.

The room smelled like bacon and eggs and newly baked bread, and compared to the cold morning air of the outside the inn was warm and cozy. Not many guests sat around the tables that remained of last night's dispute, as it was fairly early still, and those that were looked tired and overworked. Especially a small group of men, with swords at their hips and all wearing the same brand of cap, who seemed so downtrodden that Marion could practically see a cloud above their heads. The inn was in a drowsy mood all in all. Save the two guests Marion had met yesterday, who once again sat by the bar, straw hat wearing Luffy with a number of empty plates before him as he talked fervently with Cassis, and the pink haired one laughing beside him. It seemed that boy was at least not as tense or scared as he'd been yesterday.

Marion and Lugh walked over to the bar - on the way receiving an odd look from the depressed men with swords - and sat down by their usual places. Marion upon the barstool straight in front of the smiling inn keeper and Lugh on the left beside her. He began massaging the ends of his fleshy legs when he'd flopped down upon the tall chair. Marion herself sat down on the chair with a, "Yo, Cassis, Luffy and pink one".

Lugh looked up and toward the two guests from yesterday and eyed them warily.

"Oy, Cass can ye gift me th' day's newspaper?", the elder man said then and turned his gaze to the black haired woman. She was also still in pyjamas.

Cassis chuckled and grinned at Lugh, then Marion, "And the usual breakfast, the two of you?".

"Course", Marion said and put her elbows on the counter, her chin resting upon her palms. She smiled lazily at the straw hat wearing teen who stuffed half a baguette into his mouth and began chewing enthusiastically. Even with all the food he had eaten the night before the teen managed to stuff himself with more. It was quite...remarkable.

"an extra cup o' spiced rum too", Lugh muttered.

Cassis nodded with a quirked eyebrow. It was unusual for Lugh to request something spicier, especially in the morning. Marion and the inn keeper shared an odd look, before Cassis headed out into the kitchen.

The clock above the door read 7.30.

"Hey, hey, Rion, will you join my crew now?", Luffy asked and smiled at the redhead, "Is that the uncle you talked about yesterday?".

Marion chuckled, and Lugh shot the younger man another wary look.

"That's th' odd pirate ye mentioned, lass?", Lugh said, and Marion was surprised he'd remembered. Lugh had straightened his posture and was pointing with his trigger finger, right hand, towards Luffy. The old man had been more than a little tense last night and with how he'd acted this morning, grumpy and tired, Marion thought he barely even recalled half of what they'd spoken about. While Lugh was getting older, he'd always had a bad short term memory.

"Yeah", Marion glanced at her uncle, a smile still upon her lips though the tension between the two this morning, "this is Luffy, and his comrade I do not know the name of yet".

The pink haired one gasped and uttered a hasty apology, "It's Coby, Ms Rion".

Coby had already finished his breakfast, his plate and half empty glass standing before him on the counter, and he wore the same clothes as yesterday. Though Marion guessed that when it came to change of clothes, on the sea, it was seldom you had too many different choices - pack light and you will survive, as Lugh once had said when he'd forced her to survive in the forest alone a week. The boy was a lot more willing to smile today, it seemed, for he graced her with another nervous smile when he'd told her his name.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna be the King of Pirates uncle!", Luffy spoke and a wide grin, another one, broke across his face.

The teen was very inclined towards smiling.

Cassis came back from the kitchen with two plates of a breakfast serving in her right hand, one resting partly upon her arm, and a newspaper in her left. She had donned a cigarette between her lips again, and exhaled a cloud of the grey poison after she'd placed the plates before her long time friends and given the newspaper directly into Lugh's awaiting hands. The old man opened the paper with haste and began to read without even giving the breakfast a second glance.

Marion quirked an eyebrow at the man's odd behavior. Of course she was curious about if the day's newspaper would give the two a sign to where anyone in her family was, but was this so urgent? What had happened to make him this agitated?

Marion sighed and removed her hood, she grabbed her spoon and digged into the scrambled eggs she'd gotten.

"So, you've been to the Grandline, uncle?", Luffy asked beside her. She could hear the excitement dripping out of his voice.

Lugh answered with a distracted grunt and turned the page on his paper.

Marion rolled her eyes and swallowed a spoonful of wonderful scrambled eggs.

"How was it?!", Luffy spoke again.

"'twas exactly as thay shout it be", Lugh muttered. His eyes still fastened upon the page.

Luffy pouted and said, "Tell me more! Were you a pirate? A good one? Did you search for the one piece?".

Marion looked on, eating very slowly, as the young man questioned Lugh answers he would never get the full story of. The old man was always reluctant to tell his stories about the years in the Grandline, and it had taken Marion four years to ease him up enough to tell her. She who was the daughter of his former captain.

Lugh was simply too thorny when it came to his life on the seas - again, especially the later dates.

"Give it up, kid, he's not gonna answer all your questions", Cassis said, looking intently at the straw hat wearing teen. She exhaled another cloud of smoke and began filling the glass of spicy rum Lugh had requested.

Marion smiled at the older woman. A smile of an apology the latter had came to know throughout the years, and Cassis placed the large glass in front of the distracted older man.

Cassis had always wanted to hear Lugh's stories more in detail, but only once Marion had gotten lost and suddenly turned up on the island did she ever hear them. It had raised ire within the older woman, jealousy, towards Lugh and Marion both, but after a long year's dispute, the ire had settled and Cassis had grown to become like a protective older sister for Marion.

Marion had wondered many times how well Cassis and Reza would get along.

She hoped she could get the answer to the question soon.

Just as Cassis started pouring Marion's drink, hot delicious coffee, into a cup she'd gotten out of a cupboard behind her, loud, heavy steps were heard at Marion's back. Heading for the bar.

A large shadow fell above Marion's, surely smaller, form, and Lugh looked up from his paper.

Luffy stilled, and Coby stiffened.

Marion frowned and turned upon the barstool. Her posture open, and intimidating.

A trick she'd learned over the years on assisting at the inn and walking through the pirate driven town.

"Hey, the bar's open for everybody, but if you try to intimidate people like that things might get uncomfortable", Marion chuckled.

The ones who had approached the bar - obvious ill intent in mind - were the depressed men who previously sat at their table at the corner of the room. At the head stood a man, twice the size of Marion, with the frame of a bodybuilder and a South Bluean rapier at his cargo pants clad hip. The military design Marion remembered from the other place she'd grown up in was all over his clothes. The shoes he wore, the pants and the cloth around his left biceps. Only his black wife beater differed in design.

The man had squinting, tired eyes and a broken nose, and his hair, a mess, reached his shoulders. The men he looked to be the leader of had a similar sense of fashion and as a group they looked like a small army.

No wonder the other guests who had woken early stayed away from their table.

The leader of the group smiled, a thing that reminded Marion of the pirates of yesterday, and Marion's own little grin vanished. She really did not want to start the day with another game of 'beat 'em up'.

"Didn't know a big hit like you would hide out here girly", the leader said, and the men behind him snickered.

Marion quirked an eyebrow and mentioned for the man to continue.

She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

Lugh straightened further on his chair, tensing and brought his glass of spiced rum to his lips. On the left side of Marion Luffy put his fork down by his half finished plate, and glanced curiously at the intuding man. A bored expression painting his face.

Coby seemed to pretend that he wasn't there.

"Ah, so you do not know", the pirate cackled, his voice as croaky as a frog's, "that's not too surprising, the bounty was only issued today".

Marion furrowed her brows. Bounty? Since when did she have a bounty? She'd only ever harassed a marine once, and she doubted that was enough to get her a bounty.

"You have a bounty?!", Luffy exclaimed, in awe.

"No...at least I shouldn't have...", Marion mumbled and glared at the military man before her, "What do you mean by this?".

The man smiled and showed yellowed teeth, one black, "You have a bounty, issued today, of 100 million beries, dead or alive".

Marion stiffened. The threat in the man's voice was as obvious as his love for the military pattern. She glared at the man.

"100 million?!", Coby exclaimed and fell from his chair as he, for a moment, lost his balance in surprise.

"OOOH!", Luffy laughed, "that's awesome! Now you really gotta join my crew!".

"Lass", Lugh then growled.

Marion glanced at the older man. He had put down the paper upon the counter, still open and with a distinct picture of her likeness displayed on the page. In his left hand he held a bounty.

Marion guessed that was what was supposed to be her bounty.

It felt as though someone had drenched her in ice water.

How did this happen?

"Lass, this be -".

But Lugh could not finish his sentence before he was quieted by a loud gasp of Marion's as pain exploded by her jaw. White hot pain which raked through her head as her body lurched backwards and the back of her head slammed into the bar counter. The wood beneath her head cracked and Marion grit her teeth.

 _Ouch._

Marion coughed, and shut her eyes tight. That had hurt. And she could feel a headache approaching, quickly.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!", Marion heard Luffy shout from beside her, but the words were muffled to her ears.

She clenched her fist, a surge of anger rushing through her body, and raised her pounding head from the fractured counter. The glare she sent the man who'd hit her, when she opened her eyes, was full of promises of hurt.

She really had not wished to start the day like this.

"I am the leader of the pirate hunter group 'the driftwood plunderers' and we're gonna collect that bounty of yours 'red-tailed' Tereza!", the leader growled and his men drew their swords.

 _Tereza..._

That was why they thought she was the one with the bounty on her head, they mistook her for her sister. Marion couldn't help the smile that grazed her lips, soon breaking into a wide grin.

Her sister was alive!

"Oy, oy, laddie, ye really don't want th' be messin' wit' tha' one now", Lugh growled.

Cassis chuckled behind Marion. She knew that name almost as well as Marion knew it - as the younger woman never shut up about her sister, even she could admit that - and while it seemed the two were almost identical, these bounty hunters clearly didn't think straight. What would a 100 million beli worth criminal do all the way over in East Blue? The redhead's sister was most likely in the Grandline - waiting for her younger twin to come and find her.

Marion moved off her chair, standing beside an enraged Luffy who'd sprung from his stool also - the teen had a mean glare -, and cracked her knuckles.

"Heh, I didn't count on getting any exercise this early in the morning", Marion said, "Mr Luffy, I'd recommend you step back for a bit".

"No way! I won't let him get away with hitting my new crew mate!", Luffy exclaimed and assumed a fighting stance, his legs bent, wide, and his arms tense at his side as he clenched his fists.

Marion quirked a red eyebrow, "Oy, who's your new crew mate?".

Hadn't she refused him yesterday?

"I've decided now, you're gonna join my crew!", Luffy said with a grin.

"That's not for you to decide!", Marion growled and moved into a similar position as Luffy, just as the pirate hunters had enough of their conversation and decided to attack.

Coby screeched and moved away from the bar, running to one of the corners of the room, but Lugh remained, lazy upon his stool. The guests present made way for any exit they could find, back to their rooms or outside, and soon the whole room was near empty of spectators. Cassis remained heedlessly behind the bar counter, and mashed her cigarette into the ash tray.

"No more talking now! Take her head men!", the leader yelled.

It all happened in a frenzy and soon the hunters lunged with rapiers and sabers drawn at the two like a mass of angry bees.

But while the numbers were on their side Marion was sure she and Luffy could take them on. For even if Luffy would have been an awful fighter, the assailants had a horrible form and attacked without co-ordination.

Marion side stepped a saber which was flung at her head, and punched the assailant in the stomach, before she kicked another in the knee, dropping him to the floor. She proceeded to knee him in the head, hard. That rendered two unconscious out of...17? 20? She had not counted the groups members before they'd attacked. Marion could hear Luffy fighting somewhere beside her, but had to focus on her own attackers rather than Luffy's. So she kicked one of the hunters toward the teen instead - knocking down a few of those Luffy would of had to deal with.

She took down two additional assailants by slamming their heads together, and another one by kicking him between the legs. But when she was about to lung towards the leader - who had not yet made his move - she was bested by the stretching arm of luffy which smashed into the leader's face.

The force of the punch sent the large man flying, hitting four of his men - who stood behind him still - on the way, until he slammed into the wall right beside the broken glass door. The impact created a crack in the sturdy wood.

Marion stared, bewildered at the straw hat wearing teen as his long - too long - arm returned to it's normal size at his side and he grinned in victory.

"What the...", she muttered.

She slammed her elbow into the closest attackers neck, possibly breaking it, and kicked another one in the stomach.

From the corner of her eye, as she danced around two rapier attacks, she could see both the leader rise, stumbling, to his feet, and Luffy hitting at least six in what looked to be a hail of punches performed at the same time. A feat which should have been humanly impossible - as he also stood far too far away from those he hit to even be able to land a punch. Had the teen eaten a devil fruit as well? Or was this simply another strange trick which worked in this world only?

Before long all the pirate hunters save the leader of the group were either unconscious or unwilling to fight, and Marion stood panting before the hulking form of the leader.

Marion chuckled.

Luffy walked up to her and sent a spine chilling glare at the pirate hunter before them.

"You interrupted my breakfast! And you hit my new crew mate!", Luffy yelled and tilted his straw hat - which had surprisingly not fallen of his head during the fight.

"Couldn't pass up the opportunity of a 100 million beri prize", the pirate hunter laughed and spit at Marion's feet.

The redhead grimaced.

"The bounty isn't even mine dumbass, it's my sister's", Marion sneered.

She was inclined to laugh at the surprised, and angry, expression upon the muscular man's face - but refrained. He looked as though someone had stolen something out from under his nose, and was ready to go on a rampage about it.

"Eh!", Luffy said, disappointment flooding his voice, "It's not yours?!".

That caused Marion to let out a snort of laughter. Had he truly believed it was hers? The bounty belonged to some criminal the marines had set their eyes on, yet Marion had hardly ever stepped foot outside of the island. She had told him that yesterday. The name Tereza sounded nothing like her nickname on top of that.

"You bitch!", the muscular man raged.

"Well, you had already started the fight before I could tell you that it wasn't me, 'is your own fault for not asking names first", Marion mocked and crossed her arms.

The mockery was apparently the last straw for the large man and blinded by anger, he drew a gun from his pants' pockets. It was a small, rusted thing, and it squeaked in protest when the man pulled the safety off. The gun was aimed, at Marion's head, and fired with a loud ' _bang!_ '.

Marion had just enough time to close her eyes, prepare for the pain, before the bullet was fired.

Yet impact never came.

Instead, Marion heard frightened gasps from many corners of the room, and in front of her, and once she opened her eyes again she saw the back of the straw hat, and black spiky hair in place of the barrel of a gun. Her eyes widened in fright. What had the young man done?! She refused to let him sacrifice himself in her stead!

Marion grabbed the teen by the shoulder and turned him around - expecting to see a hole through his forehead and for his body to fall down upon her. But the face she thought would reflect death was instead laughing. And his body was still standing tall. No hole and no bullet anywhere in sight.

"What the fuck just happened?", Marion grit out. Her expression was a mix of fright and disbelief, her mouth gaping and her eyes wide.

A groan of pain to her right forced her attention away from the grinning teen and onto the bleeding pirate hunter in front of the two. He lay against the cracked wooden wall with a bleeding bullet hole in his stomach staining his wife-beater an even darker black. _How_ -

"You're a devil fruit user?", Marion asked, baffled. There was no other explanation for it.

"Yeah, I ate the rubber fruit!", Luffy laughed and pulled at his right cheek to demonstrate the point. His cheek stretched far longer than it should have.

Marion quirked her eyebrow at the display. That was a very odd sight to see.

She had not met another person with a devils fruit. Nor had she believed, for sure, that the fruits could have such a vast influence on the body - despite what Lugh had claimed he'd seen in the Grandline. Then again she should have stopped being surprised about the strangeness of this world long ago. She had seen an animal talk after all. But a human with a rubber body...that was a very strange still.

"So...you bounced the bullet back?", Marion asked and pointed her right thumb at the whimpering pirate hunter, "are you invulnerable?".

Luffy laughed again, "Nah, swords will kill me, and I'll drown really easily".

Marion let go of the teen's arms and chuckled. Wasn't he saying that just a little bit too casually? Ever since she'd learned of the devils fruit's mayor drawback she'd avoided the ocean like the plague. Heck, the first few years after arriving in this world she'd had nightmares about drowning - and beasts which could talk.

"Oh by the devils...", she mumbled and massaged her temple.

This whole affair was going to leave her with a headache. What was she going to do now?

* * *

 **A/N: SO... this was a kinda awkward place to stop, but if I had not, the chapter would have been way, way too long. And quite honestly quite boring because it would have dragged along.**

 **But how do you think it was? Good? Bad? Please review! I appreciate every single one!**


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